SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT 


FIRST.  CONFERENCE  AT 
THE  AMOS  TUCKSCHOOL 
DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE 


SDattmoutfi  College  Conference* 

jfirst  2Tuc6  School  Conference 

SCIENTIFIC    MANAGEMENT 


SDartmoutlj  College 

Jfiret  Eucfe  School  Tfoivf  :re-Ke 


ADDRESSES  AND  DISCUSSIONS 
AT  THE  CONFERENCE  ON 
SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 
HELD  OCTOBER  12  .  13  .  14 

NINETEEN    HUNDRED    AND    ELEVEN 


THE  AMOS  TUCK  SCHOOL  OF 
ADMINISTRATION  AND  FINANCE 
DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE 
HANOVER,  N.  H.,  U.  S.  A. 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,    1912 
BY    DARTMOUTH    COLLEGE 


THE. PLIMPTON. PRESS 

[W.D.O] 

NOK.V  ODD. MASS.  U.S-A 


TO  EDWARD  TUCK 

FOUNDER   OF   THE   AMOS   TUCK   SCHOOL 

OF   ADMINISTRATION   AND   FINANCE 

WHOSE   DESIRE   THAT   THE    SCHOOL 

SHOULD   BE   OF    SERVICE   TO   THE    STATE 

AND   TO    THE   NATION   INSPIRED 

THE   CALLING   OF   THE   CONFERENCE 

OF   WHICH   THIS   VOLUME 

IS   A   RECORD 


6 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

±EE  AMOS  TUCK  SCHOOL  desires  to  make  acknowledg- 
ment of  its  indebtedness  to  many  persons  not  resident  in  Hanover  for 
that  generous  cooperation  which  made  possible  the  success  of  the 
conference: 

To  His  Excellency,  Honorable  Robert  P.  Bass,  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  to  Honorable  Henry  B.  Quinby,  ex-Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  in  whose  participation  was  expressed  the  interest  and 
cooperation  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire; 

To  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia;  Har- 
rington Emerson,  of  The  Emerson  Company,  Consulting  Engineers, 
New  York;  Henry  L.  Gantt,  Consulting  Engineer,  New  York;  Fred- 
erick A.  Cleveland,  Chairman  of  The  President's  Commission  on 
Economy  and  Efficiency,  Washington,  D.  C.;  Henry  P.  Kendall, 
Manager  of  The  Plimpton  Press,  Norwood,  Mass.;  James  M.  Dodge, 
Chairman  of  the  Board,  The  Link-Belt  Company,  Philadelphia;  and 
many  other  speakers  whose  names  the  reader  will  find  in  these  pro- 
ceedings, for  the  generous  contributions  which  made  the  conference 
worthy  of  permanent  record; 

To  Charles  H.  Jones,  President  of  The  Commonwealth  Shoe  and 
Leather  Company,  Boston,  Mass.,  and  Benjamin  A.  Kimball,  '54, 
President  of  The  Mechanicks  National  Bank  and  President  of  the 
Concord  and  Montreal  Railroad,  Concord,  N.H.,  representative  of 
New  England  business  men,  chairmen  of  sessions  of  the  conference; 

To  Harry  R.  Wellman,  '07,  Assistant-Secretary  of  the  Boston 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  Boston,  Mass.;  Emmett  Hay  Naylor,  '09,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Springfield  Board  of  Trade,  Springfield,  Mass.;  Morton 

Hull,  '09,  Secretary  of  the  Holyoke  Board  of  Trade,  Holyoke,  Mass.; 

vii 


viii  ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Ernest  S.  Gile,  '95,  publisher  of  "  The  Weekly  Bulletin  of  Leather 
and  Shoe  News"  Boston,  Mass.;  Ernest  Martin  Hopkins,  '01, 
Employment  Manager,  William  Filene's  Sons  Company,  Boston, 
Mass.;  and  other  alumni  of  Dartmouth  College  for  effective 
cooperation; 

Particularly  to  Morris  Llewellyn  Cooke,  Consulting  Engineer, 
Philadelphia,  since  appointed  Director  of  Public  Works  of  Philadel- 
phia, of  whose  wise  counsel  and  active  help,  sought  by  the  School  in 
every  step  of  planning  and  performance,  the  conference  and  its  record 
are  a  testimony. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 3 

HARLOW  S.  PERSON,  Director,  The  Amos  Tuck  School,  Dartmouth  College 


JFtrot  Session 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

INTRODUCTION   BY   THE   CHAIRMAN 19 

HONORABLE  HENRY  B.  QUINBY,  ex-Governor  of  New  Hampshire 

ADDRESS   OF   WELCOME 20 

ERNEST  Fox  NICHOLS,  LL.D.,  President  of  Dartmouth  College 

THE   PRINCIPLES   OF   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT      ....       22 
FREDERICK  W.  TAYLOR,  Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 

Second  Session 

SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  THE  LABORER 

INTRODUCTION   BY   THE   CHAIRMAN 59 

BENJAMIN  A.  KIMBALL,  President  of  the  Mechanicks  National  Bank,  and 
President  of  the  Concord  and  Montreal  Railroad,  Concord,  N.  H. 

THE  TASK  AND  THE  DAY'S  WORK 60 

HENRY  L.  GANTT,  Consulting  Engineer,  New  York 

THE     OPPORTUNITY     OF     LABOR    UNDER    SCIENTIFIC    MAN- 
AGEMENT       84 

HARRINGTON  EMERSON,  The   Emerson   Company,  Consulting   Engineers, 
New  York 

iz 


CONTENTS 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  THE  MANAGER 

INTRODUCTION   BY   THE   CHAIRMAN  .........      109 

CHARLES  H.  JONES,  President  of  The  Commonwealth  Shoe  and  Leather  Co., 
Boston 

TYPES  OF  MANAGEMENT:  UNSYSTEMATIZED,  SYSTEMATIZED 

AND   SCIENTIFIC    .      .      ............     112 

HENRY  P.  KENDALL,  Manager  of  The  Plimpton  Press,  Norwood,  Mass. 

THE   SPIRIT  IN   WHICH   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT   SHOULD 

BE   APPROACHED       ........     .....      142 

JAMES  M.  DODGE,  Chairman  of  the  Board,  The  Link-Belt  Co.,  Nicetown, 
Philadelphia 


jfourtf) 

DISCUSSIONS  OF  THE  APPLICABILITY  OF  SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT  IN  CERTAIN  INDUSTRIES 

MACHINE   MANUFACTURE  .............     iSS 

CHAIRMAN,  HENRY  K.  HATHAWAY,  Vice-President  of  The  Tabor  Mfg.  Co., 
Philadelphia 

TEXTILE   MANUFACTURE   .............     I7S 

'CHAIRMAN,  EUGENE  SZEPESI,  Szepesi  6*  Farr,  Textile  Engineers,  Boston 

SHOE   MANUFACTURE     .............      .204 

CHAIRMAN,  CHARLES  H.  JONES,  President  of  The  Commonwealth  Shoe  and 
Leather  Co.,  Boston 

PRINTING  AND    PUBLISHING  ............      239 

CHAIRMAN,  MORRIS  LLEWELLYN  COOKE,  Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 

PULP  AND   PAPER   MANUFACTURE.     .      .     .     .    >     .     ,     .     .     252 
CHAIRMAN,  MINER  CHIPMAN,  The  Emerson  Company,  Consulting  Engi- 
neers, New  York 

LUMBERING  AND  THE  MANAGEMENT  OF  TIMBER  PROPERTIES     269 
CHAIRMAN,  W.  R.  BROWN,  The  Berlin  Mills  Co.,  Berlin,  N.  H. 

ACADEMIC   EFFICIENCY       .............     286 

CHAIRMAN,  EDWIN  F.   GAY,  Dean  of  the  Graduate  School  of  Business 
Administration,  Harvard  University 


CONTENTS  xi 

jffftf)  feceteion 

SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  GOVERNMENT 

INTRODUCTION   BY   THE   CHAIRMAN  .........     313 

HONORABLE  ROBERT  P.  BASS,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire 

THE    APPLICATION    OF    SCIENTIFIC    MANAGEMENT   TO    THE 

ACTIVITIES   OF   STATE   AND    MUNICIPAL   GOVERNMENT     313 
FREDERICK  A.  CLEVELAND,  Chairman  of  The  President's  Commission  on 
Economy  and  Efficiency 


PHASES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

INTRODUCTION   BY  THE   CHAIRMAN  .     .     .     ,     .     .  ,  .     .     .     339 

MORRIS  LLEWELLYN  COOKE,  Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 

SYMPOSIUM  .................      .339 

HENRY  K.  HATHAWAY,  Vice-President  of  The  Tabor  Manufacturing  Co., 

Philadelphia 

SANFORD  E.  THOMPSON,  Consulting  Engineer,  Newton  Highlands,  Mass. 
CARL  J.  BARTH,  Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 
HONORABLE  WILLIAM  C.  REDFIELD,  Member  of  Congress 
MRS.  FRANK  B.  GILBRETH 
FRANK    B.    GILBRETH,    Vice-President   of    the   Society  for   Promoting 

Engineering  Education 
EDWARD  ROBINSON,  Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineering,  University  of 

Vermont 

ARTHUR  GORDON  WEBSTER,  Professor  of  Physics,  Clark  University 
HOLLIS  GODFREY,  West  Medford,  Mass. 
FREDERICK  W.  TAYLOR,  Consulting  Engineer.  Philadelphia 


REGISTRATION  AT  THE   CONFERENCE 379 


JntroOiJCtion 

BY  HARLOW  S.  PERSON 

Director  of  the  Amos  Tuck  School,  Dartmouth  College 


SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT1 

HARLOW  S.  PERSON 

WHETHER  Scientific  Management  is  something  new 
or  is  a  new  name  for  old  principles  and  mechanism  of 
organization  and  management  is  relatively  unimpor- 
tant. What  is  important  is  that  it  has  recently  been  given 
an  extraordinary  amount  of  attention  in  newspapers  and  in 
magazines,  and  that  notwithstanding  this  large  amount  of 
exposition  and  discussion  there  seems  to  be  no  general  under- 
standing of  its  nature  and  of  its  operation.  Both  its  prin- 
ciples and  its  mechanism  must  be  understood  before  further 
discussion  can  be  really  profitable.  The  purpose  of  this  first 
Tuck  School  conference  is  to  enable  business  men  and  manu- 
facturers of  New  Hampshire  and  of  New  England  to  meet 
the  organizing  engineers  who  have  applied  Scientific  Man- 
agement and  the  manufacturers  in  whose  plants  it  is  in 
operation,  in  the  hope  that  they  may  carry  away  from 
the  conference  an  understanding  of  its  principles  and  that 
they  may  form  sound  judgments  concerning  its  applicability 
to  their  respective  businesses. 

The  fact  that  there  are  so  many  contradictory  opinions 
concerning  Scientific  Management  suggests  that  there  must 
be  in  it  something  of  a  new  philosophy  of  management,  and 
that  it  must  be  worthy,  for  that  reason  if  for  no  other,  of 
serious  investigation.  Whether  one  considers  it  a  new  phi- 
losophy of  management  or  whether  one  considers  it  a  gather- 
ing together  of  the  best  of  old  devices  of  management,  depends 
primarily  upon  whether  one  begins  with  an  examination  of 
the  whole  or  with  an  examination  of  the  parts.  The  aero- 

1  An  address  delivered  before  the  Social  Science  Club  and  the  Dartmouth 
Scientific  Society,  of  Dartmouth  College,  and  published  in  The  Dartmouth,  a 
student  newspaper,  preliminary  to  the  conference. 

3 


4  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

plane  furnishes  an  analogy.  If  the  inventors  of  the  aeroplane 
had  brought  its  parts  one  at  a  time  before  the  public  and 
proclaimed  each  as  something  new,  they  would  have  been 
ridiculed.  But  when  the  perfected  aeroplane  was  brought 
out  and  men  actually  flew,  the  Wrights  were  acknowledged 
great  inventors.  Old  and  familiar  mechanical  devices  had 
been  brought  into  a  new  relationship  expressing  a  new  ideal. 
In  a  like  manner  many  writers  and  speakers  have  observed 
only  the  devices  of  Scientific  Management  and  have  pro- 
nounced them  old  and  familiar.  They  have  failed  to  see  the 
whole  and  to  appreciate  the  view  that  it  is  a  union  of  many 
old  devices  with  a  few  new  ones  in  a  relationship  expressing 
a  new  ideal  of  business  organization  and  management. 

Scientific  Management  is  said  to  be  a  third  stage  in  the 
development  of  organization.  The  first  stage  was  represented 
by  the  non-systematized  business,  of  which  there  are  to  be 
found  survivals  among  older  and  smaller  plants.  In  this  stage 
the  management  grew  up  with  the  plant,  was  inbred,  and  was 
bound  by  traditions  handed  down  from  manager  to  manager. 
There  were,  of  course,  in  the  period  of  non-systematized  busi- 
ness general  improvement  and  brilliant  examples  of  the  de- 
velopment of  new  methods,  but  the  period  was  one  of  high 
profits  and  of  little  incentive  to  improvement,  and  new 
methods  came  fortuitously  and.  spread  only  by  imitation. 

The  second  stage  of  organization  is  represented  by  the 
systematized  business,  characteristic  of  the  last  two  decades. 
During  the  period  following  the  Civil  War,  improvements  in 
transportation  destroyed  isolated  markets,  brought  more 
intense  competition  and  reduced  the  margin  between  raw 
material  cost  and  selling  price.  This  situation  compelled 
many  managers,  who  might  otherwise  have  remained  bound 
by  tradition,  to  seek  by  improved  methods  and  organization 
a  reduction  of  the  costs  of  manufacturing  processes.  Chemis- 
try was  called  in  to  make  salable  products  of  what  had  been 
waste;  blank  forms  of  great  variety  were  devised  to  keep 
account  of  materials  and  of  labor  that  there  might  be  no  mis- 
application and  waste  of  these;  as  units  of  business  became 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  5 

larger,  printed  and  written  directions  came  to  replace  per- 
sonal oversight  and  instruction  by  the  manager,  and  systems 
were  devised  to  effect  the  smooth  working  of  routine.  Cost 
accounting,  the  sextant  and  compass  of  the  business  man, 
was  more  highly  developed  and  more  generally  adopted  and 
this  required  the  systematization  of  processes. 

Systematized  management  is  not  Scientific  Management, 
say  the  advocates  of  the  latter.  Under  the  former  tradition 
remains  dominant;  improved  methods  are  acquired  by  experi- 
ment, it  is  true,  but  not  by  the  precise  laboratory  method  of 
the  observation  and  measurement  of  a  large  number  of  units; 
new  methods  become  known  by  imitation  rather  than  by 
teaching;  and,  the  reduction  of  a  cost  once  accomplished,  it 
is  common  to  accept  the  result  as  final,  because  the  solution 
of  an  immediate  problem,  rather  than  as  a  step  only  towards 
greater  improvement. 

The  third  stage  in  the  development  of  organization  and 
management,  they  say,  is  that  of  Scientific  Management. 
Nor  is  it  merely  theory,  they  insist  further.  During  a  period 
of  thirty  years  its  principles  have  been  in  process  of  working 
out  and,  during  a  briefer  period,  of  application.  Plants 
employing  an  aggregate  of  50,000  men  have  adopted  the  new 
methods.  Witness  after  witness  testified  before  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  that  he  was  connected  with  the 
management  of  plants  employing  these  methods,  and  presented 
an  impressive  array  of  facts  concerning  its  results,  —  greater 
productivity,  greater  profits,  higher  wages  and  reduced  prices 
to  the  consumer.  If  Scientific  Management  be  universally 
applicable  in  business  organization  and  management  it  may 
truly  be  "the  most  important  advance  in  industry  since  the 
introduction  of  the  factory  system  and  power  machinery." 

Mr.  Taylor  insists  that  the  general  principles,  or  philosophy, 
of  Scientific  Management  should  not  be  confused  with  the 
mechanism,  which  is  merely  incidental.  He  emphasizes  four 
fundamental  principles.  First:  the  method  of  Scientific 
Management  is  the  method  of  a  true  science.  The  organiz- 
ing engineer  "objectifies"  a  plant  to  be  organized;  he  enters 


6  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

as  an  "outsider,"  bound  by  no  traditions  and  prejudices  of 
its  management,  holds  it,  so  to  speak,  at  arm's  length,  studies 
it  by  departments  and  as  a  whole,  compares  it  with  other 
similar  plants  of  his  experience  and  observes  defects  that  the 
"insider"  does  not  see.  In  this  process  the  truly  scientific 
method  of  analysis  into  units  and  experimental  recombina- 
tion of  them  is  followed;  not  superficially,  but  exhaustively, 
until  enough  data  are  collected  from  which  trustworthy  laws 
may  be  derived.  There  is  one  case  of  experimenting  by  Mr. 
Taylor  in  which  nearly  50,000  experiments  were  carefully 
recorded,  classified  and  studied,  800,000  pounds  of  steel  and 
iron  were  cut  up  into  chips,  and  nearly  $200,000  were  ex- 
pended. This  observation  is  not  confined  to  machinery  and 
material  only;  it  is  applied  also  to  men  and,  for  illustration, 
laws  of  fatigue  and  recovery  from  fatigue  are  discovered.  In 
accordance  with  laws  thus  derived,  standards  of  productivity 
are  established  and  the  methods  of  their  attainment  set  forth 
in  rules.  In  this  observation  and  experiment  and  in  the  deri- 
vation of  laws  there  is  no  assumption  of  finality.  The  organ- 
izing engineer  does  not  stop  when  a  reduction  in  cost  is 
effected;  he  assumes  that  there  is  always  the  probability  of 
further  important  discovery  of  new  laws,  and  observation  and 
experiment  do  not  cease.  This  attitude  of  mind  and  these 
methods,  says  Mr.  Taylor,  justify  the  claim  that  the  new 
management  is  a  science. 

A  second  general  principle  of  Scientific  Management  is 
that  there  should  be,  and  as  a  result  of  the  laws  derived 
by  observation  and  experiment  may  be,  a  scientific  selection 
of  machines,  material  and  workmen.  For  instance,  by  a 
careful  study  of  each  individual  of  a  group  of  men  in  any 
department,  it  may  be  found  that  many  are  not  physically 
or  temperamentally  adapted  to  performing  the  particular 
functions  required  in  that  department  and  that  they  are 
adapted  to  the  performing  of  functions  in  some  other  de- 
partment. There  follows  a  redistribution  of  men  between 
departments  with  the  result  that,  without  an  increase  in 
aggregate  energy  expended,  there  is  an  increase  in  aggregate 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  7 

productivity.  It  is  the  scientific  method  of  adapting  instru- 
ment to  purpose. 

The  third  principle  of  the  new  management  is  that,  a  work- 
man once  discovered  and  assigned  to  the  performance  of  the 
function  to  which  he  is  adapted,  the  management  should 
provide  continuous  instruction  for  him.  From  this  point  of 
view  the  factory  should  become  a  school;  the  workman  should 
be  instructed  how  to  use  the  most  efficient  method  with  the 
greatest  skill. 

The  fourth  of  Mr.  Taylor's  principles  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment is  that  there  should  be  intimate  cooperation  between 
management  and  men  and  a  redistribution  of  responsibilities. 
The  workability  of  the  new  management,  says  Mr.  Taylor, 
depends  upon  such  sympathetic  cooperation.  There  must  be 
mutual  recognition  of  the  possibility  of  mutual  helpfulness. 
This  recognized,  there  must  be  a  readjustment  of  duties,  for 
under  present  systems  of  management  there  is  required  of  a 
workman  so  much  as  to  make  impossible  his  highest  efficiency. 
The  manager,  under  the  present  system,  requires  of  the  work- 
man simply  the  accomplishment  of  a  certain  result.  To  the 
workman  is  left  the  determination  of  the  method  as  well  as 
the  actual  performance.  Under  Scientific  Management  the 
experts  in  the  planning  room  determine  the  method  and  leave 
to  the  workman  freedom  to  apply  all  his  energy  to  actual 
performance. 

These  four  general  principles  constitute,  according  to  Mr. 
Taylor,  the  philosophy  of  Scientific  Management.  The  de- 
vices employed  to  give  effect  to  these  principles  constitute  the 
mechanism.  The  philosophy  and  any  particular  mechanism 
are  not  to  be  considered  equally  important.  In  Mr.  Taylor's 
own  words,  "Scientific  Management  fundamentally  consists 
of  ...  a  certain  philosophy  which  can  be  applied  in  many 
ways,  and  a  description  of  what  any  man  or  men  may  believe 
to  be  the  best  mechanism  for  applying  these  general  principles 
should  in  no  way  be  confused  with  the  principles  themselves." 
But  certain  parts  of  the  mechanism  now  advocated  by  the 
organizing  engineers  are  of  great  importance  because  they 


8  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

seem  to  be  necessary  to  the  application  of  the  principles  and 
because  one  of  them  in  particular  is  opposed  by  many  em- 
ployees as  competent,  in  their  judgment,  to  produce  indirect 
results  harmful  to  their  productive  group. 

Scientific  Management  aims  to  produce  at  least  five  results, 
all  of  which  must  be  produced  before  such  management  can 
be  said  to  be  established,  and  for  their  production  specific 
devices  must  be  employed. 

First ,  Industrial  processes  must  be  reduced  to  units  before 
scientific  observation  and  experiment  are  possible.  The  most 
important  device  for  this  purpose,  the  time-study,  aims  to 
reduce  the  operations  of  workmen  to  fundamental  motions 
and  to  ascertain,  for  example,  the  shortest,  longest  and 
average  time  required  for  each  motion.  From  experiment 
with  these  data  a  standard  time  for  the  performance  of  each 
operation  is  derived. 

Second,  This  standard  time  in  which  a  given  operation  is 
to  be  performed  having  been  ascertained,  it  must  be  set 
before  the  workman  as  something  to  strive  for.  To  accom- 
plish this  the  device  of  the  task,  sometimes  called  standard 
time,  is  used.  With  each  order  which  goes  into  the  shop  is 
advice  concerning  the  average  time  which  should  be  required 
to  produce  each  unit  of  product  and  which  represents  the 
standard  of  efficiency. 

Third,  The  workman  must  be  instructed  how  to  achieve 
this  standard.  He  must  have  at  hand  a  sympathetic,  expert 
director  who  is  teacher  rather  than  boss.  The  device  of 
functional  foremanship  is  intended  to  effect  this.  The  func- 
tional foreman  teaches  all  the  workmen  who  have  to  perform 
a  given  function,  e.g.,  set  a  tool  in  a  lathe,  exactly  how  to 
perform  that  and  no  other  function.  He  is  an  expert  workman 
become  teacher.  The  foremanship  of  Scientific  Management, 
therefore,  requires  in  a  given  plant  as  many  foremen  as  there 
are  functions  to  be  performed  there.  The  foreman  of  the 
usual  organization,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  boss  of  all  the 
men  in  a  given  room  with  respect  to  all  functions  performed 
there.  He  may  be  expert  in  one  or  more  of  the  functions,  but 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  9 

seldom  all,  and  too  frequently  considers  himself  driver  rather 
than  teacher.  This  foremanship  requires  in  a  given  plant  as 
many  bosses  as  there  are  departments. 

Fourth,  Scientific  Management  aims  to  relieve  the  work- 
men of  responsibility  for  determining  how  a  process  is  to  be 
performed,  especially  if  the  method  is  one  which  may  be 
exactly,  i.e.,  scientifically,  determined,  and  to  leave  him  free 
for  the  development  of  manual  dexterity.  This  is  accom- 
plished by  the  planning  and  routing  room,  a  managerial  depart- 
ment which  works  out  and  sends  with  each  production  order 
precise  specifications  for  the  operation.  If  it  be  an  assembling 
job,  for  instance,  the  parts  to  be  assembled,  their  relative 
positions  around  the  workman  at  the  beginning  of  the  job, 
the  order  in  which  they  should  be  brought  together,  etc., 
are  specified.  The  workman  does  not  need  to  plan;  he 
proceeds  at  once  to  performance. 

Fifth,  The  workman  must  be  inspired  to  accept  the  new 
methods;  to  strive  to  acquire  dexterity  in  carrying  out  speci- 
fications sent  him.  Workmen,  like  managers,  like  any  other 
large  body  of  men,  have  fixed  habits  from  which  it  is  difficult 
to  turn  them.  How  inspire  the  workman  to  make  the  change? 
The  result  is  accomplished  by  a  differential  wage  system,  a 
device  which  gives  him  at  once,  in  a  way  perfectly  obvious,  a 
share  of  the  increased  productivity,  instead  of  compelling  him 
to  wait  for  the  slower,  less  obvious,  redistribution  of  shares 
which  would  work  out  under  the  usual  system  of  payment 
by  the  hour  or  day.  These  differential  wage  systems  vary, 
although  they  are  in  principle  the  same,  primarily  according 
to  the  proportion  of  the  increased  productivity  apportioned 
to  the  workman.  One  system  gives  the  workman,  say  30 
per  cent,  of  the  increased  returns;  another  gives  him  prac- 
tically all. 

It  is  neither  the  philosophy  nor  the  interesting  mechanism 
of  Scientific  Management  which  has  aroused  such  wide-spread 
interest;  it  is  the  story  of  its  astonishing  results.  In  Mr. 
Taylor's  own  words,  workmen  "are  receiving  from  30  per 
cent  to  ico  per  cent  higher  wages  daily  than  are  paid 


io  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

to  men  of  similar  caliber  with  whom  they  are  surrounded, 
while  the  companies  employing  them  are  more  prosperous 
than  ever  before.  In  these  companies  the  output,  per  man  and 
per  machine,  has  on  an  average  been  doubled.  During  all 
these  years  there  has  never  been  a  single  strike  among  the 
men  working  under  this  system.  In  place  of  the  suspicious 
watchfulness  and  the  more  or  less  open  warfare  which  charac- 
terize the  ordinary  types  of  management,  there  is  universally 
friendly  cooperation  between  the  management  and  the  men." 
Strong  as  it  is,  it  must  be  said  that  on  the  whole  the  testi- 
mony of  the  executives  of  plants  so  managed  corroborates 
this  statement. 

Mr.  Taylor's  statement  was  made  in  January,  1910.  Since 
that  time  there  has  appeared  strong  criticism  of  Scientific 
Management,  especially  by  officers  of  labor  unions.  It  is 
possible  that  the  publicity  given  it  by  testimony  before  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  has  caused  these  union 
officials  to  examine  it  more  closely  with  reference  to  its 
possible  influence  on  the  future  of  labor  and  particularly  of 
unionism. 

There  have  been  nine  principal  criticisms  of  Scientific 
Management.  Three  are  concerned  with  its  effect  on  the 
individual  workman,  physically  and  temperamentally.  The 
others  are  concerned  with  its  influence  on  labor  as  a  pro- 
ductive group. 

First,  The  taking  of  time-studies  and  the  determination 
and  setting  of  a  task  are  a  reflection  upon  the  good  faith  of 
labor.  It  sets  up  the  relationship  of  master  and  slave.  This 
criticism  is  undoubtedly  prompted  by  a  sensitiveness  which 
is  aroused  by  too  much  emphasis,  in  expositions  of  Scientific 
Management,  upon  the  treatment  of  labor.  Most  exposi- 
tions have  been  for  the  benefit  of  management,  and  have 
emphasized  the  handling  of  labor.  In  the  application  of 
Scientific  Management,  however,  the  managerial  force  is 
studied  just  as  keenly  and  reorganized  just  as  thoroughly  as 
is  the  labor  force.  Each  person  concerned  with  the  executive 
operations  has  a  task  and  is  held  strictly  accountable  for  its 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  II 

performance.  In  plants  in  which  Scientific  Management  has 
been  applied,  and  in  such  plants  only,  is  labor  enabled  to 
judge  of  the  efficiency  of  the  executive  force  and  to  hold  it 
up  to  established  standards  of  efficiency.  Scientific  Manage- 
ment recognizes  no  difference,  in  determining  standards  of 
efficiency,  between  management,  capital  goods  and  labor. 

Second,  The  removal  from  the  workman  of  individual  respon- 
sibility for  determining  the  method  of  an  operation  and  leaving 
to  him  attention  to  the  skilful  performance  only,  makes  his 
work  uninteresting  and  monotonous  and  is  bound  to  stunt 
him  intellectually.  My  own  observations  and  the  observa- 
tions of  others  in  plants  where  Scientific  Management  has 
been  applied  do  not  support  this  criticism.  The  first  error 
in  the  criticism  is  the  assumption  that  taking  from  the  work- 
man the  necessity  of  going  after  and  selecting  the  proper  kinds 
of  material,  tools,  etc.,  —  and  that  is  one  of  the  principal 
responsibilities  of  which  the  redistribution  of  duties  deprives 
him  —  takes  from  him  something  intellectually  stimulating. 
Another  error  is  the  assumption  that  performing  an  operation 
according  to  the  best  method  is  intellectually  less  stimulating 
than  performing  it  according  to  an  inefficient  method.  A 
third  error  is  the  assumption  that  a  method  handed  down  by 
tradition  is  intellectually  more  stimulating  than  a  method 
derived  by  experiment. 

Third,  The  effect  of  Scientific  Management  is  to  "speed  up" 
the  workman,  wear  him  out  and  cause  him  to  be  cast  aside. 
Again,  actual  investigation  in  plants  so  organized  does  not 
support  this  criticism.  Its  error  is  the  assumption  that  the 
increased  productivity  comes  from  a  greater  expenditure  of 
muscular  and  nervous  energy  in  a  working  day.  The  increased 
productivity  comes,  however,  from  other  things;  from  saving 
in  overhead  charges,  from  the  using  of  material  in  a  prede- 
termined correct  way,  from  the  using  of  machinery  in  a  pre- 
determined most  efficient  way,  from  the  elimination  of  the 
time  a  workman  wastes  in  going  after  material  and  tools, 
from  the  elimination  of  the  misapplication  of  muscular  and 
nervous  energy  in  unnecessary  motions,  and  from  compulsory 


12  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

periods  of  rest,  even,  which  the  workman  will  ordinarily  not 
take  for  himself.  The  beginner  at  golf  expends  more  energy 
in  a  round  of  nine  holes  than  the  experienced  player  in  a 
round  of  eighteen;  the  skilful  carpenter  expends  far  less 
energy  in  planing  a  board  than  does  the  novice.  Scientific 
Management  strives  to  teach  the  workman  skill,  and  to 
prevent  over-exertion  as  much  as  to  prevent  loafing.  One 
of  the  most  impressive  things  to  the  visitor  at  a  plant  so 
organized  is  the  absence  on  the  one  hand  of  loitering  and  on 
the  other  hand  of  haste. 

Fourth,  Scientific  Management  is  inapplicable  because  of 
the  mobility  of  labor;  to  teach  the  laborer  the  best  method 
requires  that  he  be  retained  for  a  period,  but  as  a  rule  labor 
is  continually  coming  into  and  going  out  of  a  plant,  and  before 
a  laborer  becomes  skilful  he  is  off  and  a  new,  awkward  man 
has  been  hired  to  take  his  place.  This  criticism  over-empha- 
sizes the  mobility  of  labor;  it  premises  a  mobility  which 
the  average  manager  does  not  experience.  I  once  asked  the 
manager  of  a  plant  organized  according  to  the  principles  of 
Scientific  Management  what  was  the  average  time  a  work- 
man remained  with  him.  Eight  years,  he  replied.  He  stated 
further  that  the  average  time  was  increasing  under  the  new 
conditions  of  organization.  Scientific  Management  carries 
with  it  its  own  corrective  of  the  loss  which  comes  from  too 
great  a  mobility  of  labor.  The  fact  that  a  workman  is  per- 
mitted to  work  under  conditions  which  render  him  more 
productive  and  that  he  is  paid  according  to  his  ability  keeps 
him  in  the  plant. 

Fifth,  It  inaugurates  a  spying  system  among  the  laborers 
which  results  in  mutual  distrust,  quarrels  and  absence  of 
esprit.  I  do  not  know  what  is  meant  by  spying  system, 
unless  it  refers  to  the  supposed  fact  that,  in  a  sequence  of 
processes,  if  one  workman  fails  to  keep  up  to  standard,  it  will 
cause  loss  to  another  workman  who  to  protect  himself  will 
have  to  complain  of  the  first  workman.  This  criticism  is 
due  to  assumptions  concerning  Scientific  Management  which 
are  not  true.  No  workman  has  to  complain  of  another;  if 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  13 

a  workman  is  derelict  the  fact  is  reported  automatically  to 
the  management  by  the  impersonal  time  slip,  and  it  is  the 
duty  of  management  to  relieve  the  situation  before  any 
other  workman  can  become  aware  of  it.  The  relationship  is 
not  between  workman  and  workman,  but  between  workman 
and  the  order-of-work  clerk.  The  persons  of  whom  the 
workman  may  have  occasion  to  complain  are  those  in  the 
routing,  an  executive,  department.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
finally,  I  have  not  observed,  and  no  one  has  reported  that  he 
has  observed,  in  a  plant  in  which  Scientific  Management  has 
become  well  established,  any  lack  of  harmony  in  the  labor 
force;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  that  a 
fine  spirit  of  cooperation  is  conspicuous  in  such  plants. 

Sixth,  Workmen  have  had  a  bitter  experience  with  the  piece- 
rate  system;  have  been  "speeded  up"  by  increases  in  piece- 
rates  only  to  have  the  rates  cut.  May  not  the  differential 
wage  system  of  Scientific  Management  be  used  against  the 
workman  in  a  similar  way?  This  is  a  reasonable  question. 
Such  a  manipulation  of  the  differential  wage  system  seems  to 
me  to  be  possible,  but  I  doubt  whether  it  is  probable.  In  the 
first  place,  the  experience  of  manufacturers  who  have  reduced 
piece-rates  has  been  as  bitter  as  the  experience  of  the  laborer. 
They  are  coming  to  consider  the  rate-cutting  of  the  past  as 
one  of  the  great  blunders  of  management.  It  will  take  exceed- 
ingly strong  temptation  to  induce  them  to  try  it  again.  In 
the  second  place,  piece-rates  in  the  past  have  been  established 
without  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  produc- 
tion. They  gave  to  the  workman  all  the  increase  of  produc- 
tion except  that  resulting  from  reduction  in  overhead  costs. 
The  invention  of  new  and  improved  machines  brought  prac- 
tically nothing  to  management,  and  placed  it  at  a  disastrous 
disadvantage  in  competition  with  firms  paying  day-wages, 
to  which  came  all  the  advantages  of  the  introduction  of  more 
efficient  machines.  Rate-cutting  was  compelled  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  competition.  Under  Scientific  Management, 
on  the  other  hand,  rates  are  determined  only  after  exhaustive 
investigations  of  the  productivity  of  a  laborer  in  combination 


14  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

with  a  given  machine,  and  a  separate  rate  is  established  for 
every  such  combination.  If  a  new  and  more  efficient  machine 
is  introduced,  a  new  rate  is  established  as  the  result  of  a  new 
investigation.  So  long  as  plants  organized  under  Scientific 
Management  enjoy  the  resulting  differential  advantage  in 
competition  with  plants  paying  day-wages,  there  will  be  little 
danger  of  rate-cutting,  for  in  proportion  as  the  earnings  of 
workmen  increase  does  the  unit  cost  of  the  product  decrease. 
If  the  time  should  come,  as  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  it  will 
come,  when  all  plants  in  a  competitive  industry  should  be 
organized  according  to  the  principles  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, so  that  the  differential  advantage  would  no  longer 
exist,  there  might  be  temptation  to  rate-cutting.  But  under 
those  conditions  the  temptation  would  be  no  greater  than  to 
cut  under  the  day- wage  system.  And  if  unions  still  existed 
labor  would  be  in  as  good  a  position  to  protect  itself  in  the 
one  case  as  in  the  other. 

Seventh,  The  increase  of  efficiency  which  results  from  Sci- 
entific Management  will  throw  labor  out  of  employment. 
The  untenable  assertion  that  such  would  be  its  ultimate  effect 
is  not  deserving  of  serious  consideration.  But  that  there  may 
be  temporarily  such  a  result  in  a  given  industry  is  possible, 
if  increased  demand  resulting  from  decreased  selling  price 
should  not  pari  passu  accompany  increased  efficiency  in 
production.  It  is  good  economics  to  assume  that  in  the 
long  run  improved  methods  will  make  employment  for  a 
larger  number  of  persons;  but  it  is  also  good  sense  for  the 
laborer  to  take  into  consideration  the  possible  immediate 
consequences  of  lack  of  employment  for  a  season.  The 
saving  factor  in  the  situation  is  that  Scientific  Management 
cannot  be  applied  in  a  day.  To  apply  it  to  a  given  plant  is 
a  matter  of  years.  The  organizing  engineers  capable  of  apply- 
ing it  with  such  results  in  increased  productive  efficiency  as 
have  been  of  late  brought  to  our  attention  are  and  always 
will  be  few.  If  there  is  an  impending  revolution  in  industry 
comparable  to  the  revolution  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  it  will  be  quite  different  in  at  least  one  respect; 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  15 

systems  of  Scientific  Management  will  not  be  turned  out  as 
was  cotton  and  power  machinery,  in  great  quantities  at  a 
relatively  low  cost  and  standardized  to  fit  any  and  all  plants. 
Each  plant  presents  a  distinct  problem  to  the  organizing 
engineer,  a  problem  of  several  years  duration.  There  can 
therefore  never  be  unemployment  of  a  large  body  of  men  on 
account  of  sudden  wide-spread  more  efficient  organization. 
The  firms  which  introduce  Scientific  Management  usually 
enjoy  such  a  differential  advantage  that  they  are  able  to 
make  prices  which  enable  them  to  increase  their  plants  so 
as  to  take  care  of  the  small  amount  of  what  would  other- 
wise be  surplus  labor. 

Eighth,  It  is  asserted  that  labor  is  not  allowed  to  help  fix 
the  rate  of  compensation.  Labor  has  as  yet  expressed  no 
desire  to  do  so.  In  all  cases  of  reorganization  rates  have  been 
fixed  so  that  labor  has  been  able  to  earn  more  than  it  has 
demanded.  If  the  time  should  come,  as  it  surely  will  come, 
when  labor  asks  to  be  allowed  a  voice  in  establishing  differ- 
ential rates  under  Scientific  Management,  there  is  nothing  in 
the  nature  of  that  form  of  organization  to  make  it  impossible. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  probable  that  such  cooperation  between 
management  and  labor  would  work  out  more  smoothly  than 
under  present  conditions.  The  methods  of  determining  what 
the  combination  of  a  machine  and  a  man  can  do  is  so  scientif- 
ically accurate  that  facts  could  be  easily  ascertained,  and  both 
labor  and  manager  are  reasonable  when  they  know  the  facts. 
Whether  labor  would  enjoy  the  opportunity  of  helping  fix 
rates  would  depend  on  the  solidarity  of  the  group  in  making 
its  demand. 

Ninth,  It  is  asserted  that  Scientific  Management  would 
impair  the  solidarity  of  labor;  that  it  would  break  down  union- 
ism by  substituting  individual  bargaining  in  the  place  of 
collective  bargaining  for  which  unionism  is  now  struggling. 
Scientific  Management  aims  to  do  away  with  equal  payment 
to  all  laborers  irrespective  of  their  productivity,  but  it  does 
not  aim  to  do  away  with  collective  bargaining.  It  is  possible 
under  Scientific  Management  for  a  union  through  its  selected 


16  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

representatives  to  take  a  part  in  determining  what  is  the  best 
method  of  performing  an  operation,  what  would  be  a  reason- 
able task,  and  what  would  be  a  reasonable  division  of  the 
increased  returns.  These  things  once  determined,  it  would 
have  to  permit  its  individual  members  to  be  paid  according 
to  their  individual  contributions  to  the  increased  returns. 
Scientific  Management  would  impair  the  solidarity  of  union- 
ism to  the  extent  that  that  solidarity  is  dependent  upon  flat 
hour-rates  for  all  men;  it  would  not  impair  the  solidarity  by 
making  collective  bargaining  impossible. 

I  have  not  enumerated  as  a  criticism  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment the  assertion  that  a  great  number  of  inefficient,  of  "fake," 
organizing  engineers  is  likely  to  arise  to  exploit  the  new  pro- 
fession and  to  work  havoc  with  those  plants  whose  managers 
they  induce  to  accept  their  services.  It  is  a  real  danger,  but 
it  is  not  a  legitimate  criticism  of  Scientific  Management. 
Managers  should  realize  that  ability  to  organize  successfully 
a  business  depends  upon  a  combination  of  qualities  not  found 
together  in  many  men,  —  largeness  of  vision,  capacity  for 
details,  patience,  tact  which  is  born  of  sympathy,  the  capac- 
ity to  analyze  and  to  combine,  and  scientific  knowledge  of 
technical  processes. 


jFfwt  Session 

THURSDAY  EVENING,   OCTOBER  THE  TWELFTH 

CHAIRMAN,  HONORABLE  HENRY  B.  QUINBY 

Formerly  Governor  of  New  Hampshire 


THE  PRINCIPLES   OF  SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT 

INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  CHAIRMAN 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

IT  is  certainly  most  gratifying  to  me  to  visit  again  this 
splendid  college  of  which  the  citizens  of  New  Hampshire 
are  so  proud.    I  congratulate  the  authorities  of  Dart- 
mouth and  of  the  Amos  Tuck  School  upon  having  become 
leaders,  by  calling  this  conference,  in  the  dissemination  of 
knowledge  of  Scientific  Management. 

The  scope  of  Scientific  Management  is  broad.  It  is  of 
importance  to  capital  and  to  labor,  to  large  corporations  and 
to  small  concerns,  to  the  superintendent  and  to  the  artisan, 
guiding  the  efforts  of  each  into  channels  where  there  shall 
be  the  least  loss  of  energy.  It  is  not  my  purpose,  in  the 
presence  of  the  pioneer  in  this  science,  to  describe  the 
methods  advocated  by  him  for  the  conservation  of  produc- 
tive energy;  but  I  wish  to  refer  to  one  instance  of  the  uni- 
versality of  its  application  which  has  come  under  my  own 
observation. 

I  was  recently  invited  to  Fort  Hancock,  Sandy  Hook,  to 
see  the  big  guns  fired.  The  gunners  made  two  hits  out  of 
three  shots  at  a  moving  target  six  miles  away,  the  guns  being 
fired  at  intervals  of  thirty  seconds.  Remarking  upon  the 
speed  and  accuracy  of  the  firing,  my  attention  was  called 
to  a  recent  article  by  Lieutenant-Commander  W.  B.  Tardy 
upon  Scientific  Management  of  the  Navy,  in  which  he  ex- 
plains most  interestingly  how  such  rapidity  and  precision  are 
obtained  by  its  application,  and  in  which  he  gives  proper 
credit  to  Mr.  Taylor. 

19 


20  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

One  of  the  honors  which  has  been  conferred  upon  me  as 
presiding  officer  of  this  first  session  of  the  conference,  is 
that  of  presenting  to  you  a  gentleman  who  needs  no  intro- 
duction to  this  audience,  Dr.  Ernest  Fox  Nichols,  President 
of  Dartmouth  College. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME 

BY  ERNEST  FOX  NICHOLS,  LL.D. 
President  of  Dartmouth  College 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

IT  is  a  very  pleasant  privilege  to  bid  you  who  have  come 
to  this  conference  on  Scientific  Management  a  wel- 
come to  Dartmouth  College.  It  is  with  great  pleasure 
that  the  trustees  place  at  your  full  disposal  such  hospitality 
and  such  means  of  comfort  as  may  be  provided  in  a  country 
college.  It  is  a  very  great  satisfaction  to  all  the  friends  of 
Dartmouth  College  that  this  first  significant  conference  on 
the  subject  of  Scientific  Management  should  be  held  here. 
We  are  especially  glad  of  it  for  two  reasons: 

The  first  is,  that  it  affords  the  college  a  rather  unusual 
opportunity  to  do  a  service  to  the  state  and  to  the  nation  in 
bringing  together  those  who  have  developed  this  new  science, 
and  those  who  seek  to  know  more  of  its  application. 

The  second  is,  that  we  have  in  Dartmouth  College  a  very 
large  body  of  young  men  who  intend  going  into  commercial 
and  industrial  pursuits  at  the  end  of  their  college  course. 
For  several  years  past  more  than  half  the  men  who  have  left 
the  college  have  gone  into  some  branch  of  industry.  The 
high  example  which  this  conference  will  set  cannot  fail  to 
be  of  the  largest  profit  to  this  growing  group  of  young  men. 

Over  a  decade  ago,  when  the  proportion  of  the  graduates 
of  the  college  who  planned  to  go  into  business  careers  began 
to  grow  rapidly,  those  who  were  in  charge  of  the  college  at 
that  time  wisely  foresaw  that  a  progressive  institution  of  learn- 
ing could  no  longer  neglect  some  of  the  wider  principles  which 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  21 

govern  in  the  world  of  business.  They  even  more  wisely 
foresaw,  however,  that  the  young  man  who  would  go  into 
business  later  must  be  trained  not  only  for  the  business 
methods  of  today,  but  likewise  for  the  business  methods  of 
tomorrow.  Consequently,  it  was  concluded  that  the  only 
foundation  upon  which  it  is  safe  to  attempt  to  build  a  busi- 
ness man  of  the  future  is  on  the  broad  foundation  laid  in 
the  earlier  years  of  the  college.  At  Dartmouth,  therefore, 
was  established  the  first  graduate  school  of  administration 
and  finance  in  the  country,  and  our  experience,  although 
it  is  still  young,  has  proved  to  us  that  the  foundation  was  a 
wise  one. 

The  Amos  Tuck  School  of  Administration  and  Finance  is 
entering  upon  its  eleventh  year.  That  body  of  underlying 
principles  and  practices  called  Scientific  Management  is  not 
very  much  older.  It  is  therefore  a  great  pleasure  to  see  the 
two,  the  Tuck  School  and  Scientific  Management,  standing 
here  together  tonight  in  the  attitude  of  mutual  helpfulness. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  On  such  an  important  occasion  as  this 
we  should  examine  first  the  principles  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment; and  it  is  fortunate  that  we  have  with  us  tonight  the 
man  who  first  began  to  study  and  to  apply  them  systemati- 
cally. He  began  as  a  common  laborer,  served  his  apprentice- 
ship as  pattern-maker  and  machinist,  and  finally  became 
chief  engineer  of  a  great  steel  works.  In  that  position  he 
learned  to  know  the  problems  of  management  and  began 
those  scientific  investigations  out  of  which  grew  Scientific 
Management.  But  he  is  not  content  with  that  great  con- 
structive work.  A  man  of  only  middle  age,  he  is  vigorously 
young  and  busy,  —  so  busy  that  he  cannot  afford,  as  he  puts 
it,  to  work  for  money.  Just  as  he  devoted  the  earlier  years 
of  his  life  to  faithful  service  for  those  by  whom  he  was  em- 
ployed, he  is  now  devoting  himself  faithfully  and  strenuously 
to  the  service  of  every  one  engaged  in  industry,  —  the  laborer 
not  less  than  the  employer.  That  is  why  we  are  able  to  have 
him  here  tonight.  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  present  to  you 
Mr.  Frederick  W.  Taylor. 


22  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

THE  PRINCIPLES   OF  SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 

BY  FREDERICK  W.    TAYLOR 

Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

ON  behalf  of  several  of  my  colleagues  who  are  here 
tonight,  and  more  particularly  on  my  own  behalf, 
I  wish  to  express  the  appreciation  which  we  feel  for 
the  honor  which  is  being  conferred  on  us  by  the  presence 
on  this  platform  of  the  present  governor  of  this  state  and  of 
one  of  its  most  distinguished  past  governors.  I  think  that 
I  can  say  that  it  is  the  most  distinguished  honor  which  has 
yet  been  conferred  on  any  meeting  at  which  Scientific  Man- 
agement has  been  discussed,  and  we  are  deeply  grateful  that 
these  gentlemen,  busy  as  they  are,  should  have  taken  the 
time  and  the  trouble  to  come  here. 

There  is  one  fact  which  has  been  impressed  on  me  more 
than  any  other  during  the  past  six  months.  I  knew  it  to  be 
a  fact  before,  but  it  had  never  been  brought  home  to  me  in 
the  same  way  as  during  the  past  six  months.  It  is  the  funda- 
mental and  the  very  sad  fact  that  almost  every  workman 
who  is  engaged  in  the  mechanic  arts,  who  is  engaged  in  any- 
thing like  cooperative  work,  looks  upon  it  as  his  duty  to  go 
slow  instead  of  to  go  fast.  This  is  the  most  unfortunate 
fact  in  any  way  connected  with  Scientific  Management,  and 
the  causes  which  lead  to  it  should  therefore  be  very  carefully 
considered. 

I  may  say  at  the  start,  that  if  any  one  is  to  blame  for  this 
attitude,  we  are,  and  not  the  laborers.  It  is  our  fault  more 
than  the  laborers',  that  almost  every  workman  looks  upon 
it  as  his  duty  to  do  as  small  a  day's  work  as  he  can  instead 
of  as  large  a  day's  work  as  he  can.  Now  do  not  misunder- 
stand me  on  this  point;  I  am  referring  only  to  those  work- 
men who  are  engaged  in  what  may  be  called  organized  industry. 
I  am  not  referring  to  the  isolated  men  who  work  perhaps 
for  themselves,  perhaps  for  an  employer  with  one  or  two 


ON   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  23 

employees,  but  I  am  speaking  chiefly  of  the  great  mass  of  men 
who  are  doing  the  industrial  work  of  this  country.  This 
going  slow,  instead  of  going  fast,  to  my  mind  is  the  most 
serious  fact  that  we  have  to  face  in  this  country.  It  is 
certainly  the  most  serious  fact  that  is  being  faced  by  the 
English  people  at  this  time. 

If  any  of  you  will  get  close  to  the  average  workman  in  this 
country  —  close  enough  to  him  so  that  he  will  talk  to  you  as 
an  intimate  friend  —  he  will  tell  you  that  in  his  particular 
trade  if,  we  will  say,  each  man  were  to  turn  out  twice  as  much 
work  as  he  is  now  doing,  there  could  but  one  result  follow: 
namely,  that  one-half  the  men  in  his  trade  would  be  thrown 
out  of  work.  Now  this  fallacy  is  firmly  believed  by  nineteen 
men  out  of  twenty  of  all  the  workmen  throughout  the  country, 
and,  strange  to  say,  I  have  found  that  perhaps  three-quarters 
of  the  people  in  this  country  who  have  spent  the  larger  pro- 
portion of  their  life  in  getting  an  education  doubt  very  much 
if  it  would  be  of  any  great  advantage  to  the  working  people 
to  turn  out  more  work  than  they  are  doing.  The  average 
man  then,  in  all  classes  in  this  country,  doubts  if  it  would  really 
be  of  any  great  benefit  to  the  working  people  to  turn  out  a 
larger  output  than  they  are  now  doing.  Every  labor  union 
in  this  country,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  taken  steps,  or  is  taking 
steps,  to  restrict  output. 

In  this  these  men  are  strictly  honest;  they  are  doing  just 
what  you  and  I  would  do  if  we  were  in  their  position  and 
held  their  views.  If  any  of  us  thought  that  by  increasing 
our  work  we  should  throw  one-half  of  our  friends  out  of 
employment,  we  should  take  the  same  view  that  they  do. 

This  doctrine  is  preached  by  almost  every  labor  leader  in 
the  country,  and  is  taught  by  every  workman  to  his  children 
as  they  are  growing  up;  and  I  repeat,  as  I  said  in  the  begin- 
ning, that  it  is  our  fault  more  than  theirs  that  this  fallacy 
prevails. 

What  men  here  —  not  more  than  two  or  three  —  have 
ever  spoken  to  an  audience  of  workmen  and  attempted  to 
counteract  that  fallacy?  Not  more  than  two  or  three  in 


24  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

this  audience  have  ever  gone  before  an  audience  of  working- 
men  and  tried  to  point  out  the  truth,  that  the  greatest 
blessing  that  working-men  can  confer  on  their  brothers  and 
themselves  is  to  increase  their  output. 

While  the  labor  leaders  and  the  workmen  themselves  in 
season  and  out  of  season  are  pointing  out  the  necessity  of 
restriction  of  output,  not  one  step  are  we  taking  to  counter- 
act that  fallacy;  therefore,  I  say,  the  fault  is  ours  and  not 
theirs. 

All  that  it  is  necessary  to  do,  for  any  one  who  questions 
the  fact  whether  it  is  a  good  thing  for  working  people  to 
increase  their  output  or  not,  is  to  look  into  the  history  of  any 
trade  in  this  country.  Look  into  the  history  of  any  trade  in 
this  country,  and  you  will  see  that  directly  the  opposite  is 
true;  that  an  increased  output  invariably  gives  more  work  to 
more  men,  and  never  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  it  more 
than  temporarily,  and  then  for  only  a  very  short  time,  dimin- 
ished the  number  of  men  at  work  in  any  trade.  That  is  the 
truth!  Just  look  into  any  trade  and  you  will  see  it. 

I  shall  take  the  time  to  give  one  illustration  only.  Take 
the  great  cotton  industry,  one  of  the  greatest  industries  of 
your  state;  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest  indus- 
try of  New  England.  In  Manchester,  England,  in  1840  or 
thereabouts,  there  were  5,000  cotton  operatives.  Power 
machinery  began  to  be  introduced  in  the  cotton  mills  about 
that  time,  and  the  moment  those  5,000  men  saw  the  new 
machinery  coming  they  knew  that  there  would  not  be  work 
for  more  than  1,000  out  of  the  5,000  in  their  trade.  There 
was  no  question  about  it  whatever.  So  what  did  they  do? 
They  did  just  what  you  or  I  would  have  done  under  similar 
circumstances.  They  broke  into  the  mills  where  the  machinery 
was  being  installed  and  smashed  it  up;  they  burned  down  the 
mills  and  beat  up  the  "scabs"  who  were  employed  to  run  the 
new  machinery;  and  they  did  it  for  self -protection,  just  as 
you  or  I  would  have  done  it,  believing  what  they  did  as  firmly 
as  they  did. 

Now  power  machinery  came  in  the  cotton  industry,  just 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  25 

as  all  labor-saving  machinery  is  sure  to  come  in  any  industry, 
in  spite  of  any  opposition  from  any  source.  It  always  has 
come,  and  it  always  will  come.  And  what  was  the  result? 
I  am  told  that  the  average  yardage  of  cloth  now  turned  out 
per  man  in  the  cotton  industry  is  about  eight  or  ten  times  the 
yardage  turned  out  under  the  old  hand  conditions. 

In  1840,  in  Manchester,  England,  there  were  5,000  cotton 
operatives;  in  Manchester,  England,  now  there  are  265,000 
cotton  operatives.  Multiply  that  ratio  by  eight  to  ten  and 
you  will  see  that  between  400  and  500  times  the  yardage  of 
cloth  is  now  being  turned  out  from  Manchester,  England, 
that  was  turned  out  in  1840.  Has  that  increase  in  production 
thrown  people  out  of  work?  No.  It  is  merely  typical  of 
what  has  taken  place  and  is  taking  place  in  every  trade. 
The  increase  of  output  merely  means  bringing  more  wealth 
into  this  world.  That  is  the  meaning  of  it;  that  now  450 
times  as  much  wealth  in  cotton  goods  is  brought  into  this 
world  as  was  brought  in  1840,  and  that  is  the  real  wealth  of 
the  world.  And  the  workmen,  the  trades  union,  the  philan- 
thropist or  the  mill  owner  who  restrict  output  as  a  perma- 
nent policy  (I  do  not  mean  to  say  it  is  not  necessary  both  for 
workmen  and  manufacturers  at  times  to  temporarily  restrict 
output)  are  about  the  worst  enemies  to  their  fellow-men  there 
are.  There  is  hardly  any  worse  crime  to  my  mind  than  that 
of  deliberately  restricting  output;  of  failing  to  bring  the  only 
things  into  the  world  which  are  of  real  use  to  the  world,  the 
products  of  men  and  the  soil.  The  world's  history  shows  that 
just  as  fast  as  you  bring  the  good  things  that  are  needed  by 
man  into  the  world,  man  takes  and  uses  them.  That  one 
fact,  the  immense  increase  in  the  productivity  of  man,  marks 
the  difference  between  civilized  and  uncivilized  countries, 
marks  the  one  great  advance  we  have  made  on  100  to  200 
years  ago;  it  is  due  to  that  increase  of  productivity  that 
the  working  people  of  today,  with  all  the  talk  about  their 
misery  and  their  horrible  treatment,  live  almost  as  well  as 
kings  did  250  years  ago.  They  have  better  food,  better 
clothing,  and  on  the  whole  more  comforts  than  kings  had 


26  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

250  years  ago.  And  that  is  due  to  just  one  thing,  increase  of 
output. 

Take  this  matter  of  cotton  goods.  Tell  the  average  work- 
man of  today  that  when  he  has  a  cotton  shirt  on  he  has  a 
luxury.  Will  he  not  laugh  at  you?  In  1840  a  cotton  shirt 
worn  by  a  workman  was  a  luxury;  now  every  man,  woman 
and  child  in  every  workman's  family  wears  cotton  goods  as 
an  absolute  necessity.  Just  so  with  a  hundred  other  things 
that  we  have  come  to  look  upon  as  necessities,  which  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  were  luxuries.  And  to  what  is  that  due?  To 
the  increased  productivity  of  man. 

I  am  talking  so  long  on  this  subject  because  it  lies  at  the 
very  root  of  Scientific  Management,  for  Scientific  Manage- 
ment has  for  its  object  just  what  labor-saving  machinery  has 
for  its  object,  increased  output  per  unit  of  human  effort. 

The  second  cause  for  going  slow  is  entirely  due  to  us.  I 
think  we  are  more  to  blame  than  they  for  the  first  cause,  the 
fallacy  that  the  increase  of  output  will  throw  men  out  of  work, 
but  we  are  entirely  to  blame  for  the  second  cause.  It  lies  in 
our  own  inefficient  systems  of  management. 

The  piece-work  system  has  been  introduced  in  the  industries 
of  this  country  to  such  an  extent  that  hardly  a  workman  can 
be  found  in  any  industry  who  does  not  know  something  about 
its  working.  All  of  you  gentlemen  doubtless  understand  all 
about  the  piece-work  system.  If  you  do,  then  I  will  remind 
you  that  when  you  put  a  workman  on  piece-work  and  ask 
him  to  make,  we  will  say,  ten  implements  like  this  slide-rule 
in  a  day,  and  offer  to  pay  him  twenty-five  cents  for  making 
each  of  them,  you  count  on  his  using  his  ingenuity  and  on  his 
making  a  careful  study  of  the  methods  by  which  he  is  going 
to  make  them,  and  so  increase  his  daily  output.  You  hope 
that  later  instead  of  making  ten  pieces  per  day,  he  will  make 
twelve,  fourteen,  fifteen  or  even  twenty  pieces  a  day.  This 
is  the  hope  of  the  manufacturer. 

We  will  assume  that  that  workman  knows  nothing  about 
the  piece-work  system.  With  the  opportunity  before  him  to 
have  his  ingenuity  and  his  harder  work  rewarded  by  getting 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  27 

more  pay  per  day,  he  would  very  likely,  after  six  months  or 
a  year,  learn  how  to  make  fifteen  of  these  pieces  instead  of 
ten,  or,  let  us  say,  twenty  instead  of  ten.  If  he  made  twenty 
he  would  be  earning  $5  per  day  in  place  of  $2.50  which  he 
earned  before  he  was  put  on  piece-work. 

The  foreman  over  those  men,  we  will  say,  is  a  straight, 
square  man,  and  in  all  honesty  he  encourages  them  to  turn 
out  more  than  ten  pieces ;  we  will  say  he  encourages  them  to 
get  out  twenty  pieces.  Now  in  almost  all  boards  of  directors 
of  our  companies  there  are  a  number  of  very  wise  gentlemen 
who  are  perhaps  members  of  other  boards  of  directors,  and  at 
certain  intervals  these  wise  and  philanthropic  men  are  very 
apt  to  ask  for  an  analysis  of  the  pay-roll  of  their  company. 
And  when  they  see  that  a  certain  workman  in  their  employ 
is  earning  $5  a  day,  they  are  naturally  horror-stricken. 
"Why, "  they  say,  "our  orders  to  that  superintendent  were 
that  he  was  to  pay  the  ruling  wages  which  prevail  around 
here;  $2.50  a  day  is  all  any  machinist  ought  to  earn;  it 
is  horrible  to  think  of  a  mere  machinist  with  no  educa- 
tion earning  $5  a  day;  Mr.  President,  I  move  that  our 
superintendent  be  instructed  to  see  that  the  men  in  this 
establishment  are  paid  no  more  than  other  machinists  in 
other  establishments.  Why  should  we  be  spoiling  the  labor 
of  this  part  of  the  country?"  So  Mr.  Foreman,  although 
he  may  be  an  honest  man,  and  although  he  has  encouraged 
those  men  to  turn  out  that  work,  in  many  cases  perhaps  has 
actually  made  promises  to  them  that  if  they  increased  their 
output  their  wages  would  not  be  cut,  that  man  is  forced  by 
the  board  of  directors  to  go  back  on  his  word,  to  cut  down 
the  piece-work  price;  he  has  to  force  those  men  to  make 
twenty  pieces  for  $2.50  a  day  where  before  they  made 
ten  pieces  for  $2.50  a  day.  Now  the  working  people  of 
this  country  are  not  fools;  generally  one  cut  of  that  sort  is 
enough;  two  always  are  enough;  and  from  that  time  for- 
ward a  workman  is  nothing  but  a  fool  if  he  does  not  soldier 
to  "beat  the  band/'  if  he  does  not  deliberately  try  to  make 
the  people  around  him  believe  that  he  is  working  as  fast  as 


28  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

he  can,  while  he  is  really  doing  a  very  ordinary  day's  work. 
And,  gentlemen,  that  is  our  fault,  not  his,  and  not  a  thing  are 
we  doing  as  a  whole  to  remedy  that  state  of  affairs. 

It  was  precisely  this  condition  which  forced  us  to  take  the 
first  step  which  led  towards  Scientific  Management.  I  had 
had  a  war  lasting  some  two  or  three  years  with  the  workmen 
who  were  my  friends,  over  whom  I  was  finally  placed,  a  con- 
stant running  fight  for  two  or  three  years,  in  which  I  was 
trying  to  drive  them  in  spite  of  their  resistance  to  do  a  larger 
amount  of  work.  Having  worked  with  them,  I  knew  they  were 
soldiering  to  the  extent  of  about  two-thirds,  and  I  hoped  to 
be  able  to  get  them  to  at  least  double  their  work,  and  finally 
I  did,  and  then  they  were  one-third  short  of  what  they  could 
have  done.  After  three  years  of  that  fight,  three  years  of 
never  looking  a  man  in  the  face  from  morning  till  night  except 
as  a  tactical  enemy,  three  years  of  wondering  what  that  fellow 
was  going  to  do  to  me  next  and  wondering  what  I  could  do 
to  him  next,  I  made  up  my  mind  that  some  remedy  would 
have  to  be  devised  for  that  state  of  things  or  I  would  cease  to 
be  a  foreman  and  go  into  some  other  business.  It  was  in  an 
endeavor  to  remedy  such  a  state  of  things  that  the  first  step 
was  taken  leading  towards  Scientific  Management. 

In  taking  account  of  stock,  after  I  had  definitely  made  up 
my  mind  either  to  try  to  remedy  that  state  of  things  or  get 
out  of  industrial  management,  I  found  that  the  chief  lack 
was  the  lack  of  knowledge.  I  had  no  illusions  as  to  my  own 
knowledge;  I  knew  that  these  workmen  knew  ten  times  as 
much  collectively  as  I  knew.  And  we  started  to  take  measures 
which  should  enable  the  foreman  of  that  shop  to  know  approxi- 
mately what  his  men  knew.  We  started  then  along  various 
lines  of  study  with  the  purpose  of  educating  the  owners 
and  managers  of  the  shops  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Works  so 
that  they  also  should  know  approximately  what  their  men 
knew.  That  was  the  first  step  leading  towards  Scientific 
Management. 

I  want  to  tell  you  as  briefly  as  I  can  what  Scientific  Manage- 
ment is.  It  certainly  is  not  what  most  people  think  it  to  be. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  29 

It  is  not  a  lot  of  efficiency  expedients.  It  is  not  the  printing 
and  ruling  of  a  lot  of  pieces  of  blank  paper  and  spreading  them 
by  the  ton  about  the  country.  It  is  not  any  particular  system 
of  paying  men.  It  is  not  a  system  of  figuring  costs  of  manu- 
facture. It  is  none  of  the  ordinary  devices  which  unfortunately 
are  going  by  the  name  of  Scientific  Management.  It  may  in 
its  essence  be  said  in  the  present  state  of  industry  to  involve 
a  complete  mental  revolution,  both  on  the  part  of  the  manage- 
ment and  of  the  men.  It  is  a  complete  change  in  the  mental 
attitude  of  both  sides  towards  their  respective  duties  and 
towards  their  opponents.  That  is  what  constitutes  Scientific 
Management. 

There  are  now,  I  don't  know  exactly  how  many,  but 
at  a  fair  estimate  I  should  say  50,000  men  working  under 
Scientific  Management.  These  men  are  on  the  average  turn- 
ing out  twice  as  much  work  per  man  per  day  as  they  formerly 
did. 

As  a  result  of  this  increase  in  output,  their  employers  are 
profiting  by  a  very  material  reduction  of  the  cost  of  whatever 
they  are  making.  This  diminution  of  cost  has  enabled  them, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  earn  a  larger  profit  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  most  cases  to  somewhat  reduce  the  selling  price  of  the  goods 
which  they  make.  And  let  me  tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  in 
all  cases  of  Scientific  Management,  in  all  cases  of  increase  in 
efficiency,  the  general  public  takes  almost  the  whole  of  the 
increase  in  the  end.  We  consumers  are  the  beneficiaries  of 
the  increase  in  output.  The  history  of  the  matter  shows  that 
neither  the  manufacturer  nor  the  workman  through  any  long 
period  gets  very  much  benefit  from  increased  output  except 
as  the  whole  world  takes  it.  The  world  takes  that  benefit 
and  is  perfectly  entitled  to  it.  Now  the  workman:  what 
have  these  50,000  men  who  are  working  under  Scientific 
Management  got  out  of  it?  On  an  average  those  men  are 
earning  from  30  per  cent  to  100  per  cent  higher  wages 
than  they  did,  and  I  look  upon  that  as  perhaps  the  smallest 
part  of  their  gain.  Those  workmen,  to  my  mind,  have 
gained  something  far  greater  than  that;  in  place  of  looking 


30  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

at  their  employers  with  suspicion,  in  place  of  looking  upon 
them  as  at  least  tactical  enemies  although  they  may  be  per- 
sonal friends,  they  look  upon  their  employers  as  the  very  best 
friends  they  have  in  the  world.  I  look  at  that  as  the  greatest 
gain  that  can  come  under  Scientific  Management,  far  greater 
than  any  increase  in  wages.  The  harmony  that  exists  between 
employer  and  employee  under  Scientific  Management  is  the 
greatest  gain  that  can  come  to  both. 

That  is  mere  assertion,  but  in  proof  of  the  fact  that  this 
harmony  does  exist  between  the  workman  and  the  employers 
under  Scientific  Management,  I  wish  to  make  the  statement 
that  until  perhaps  three  months  ago  there  never  had  been  a 
single  strike  of  men  employed  under  Scientific  Management. 
Even  during  the  difficult  period  of  changing  from  the  old  man- 
agement to  the  new,  that  difficult  and  dangerous  period  when 
a  mental  revolution  was  taking  place  and  causing  readjust- 
ment of  attitude  towards  their  own  duties  and  towards  the 
duties  of  the  management,  there  had  never  been  a  strike  until 
this  year.  This  system  has  been  applied  to  a  great  number 
and  variety  of  industries,  and  the  fact  that  until  recently 
there  had  never  been  a  single  strike  is  ample  proof  that  these 
friendly  relations  actually  exist  between  both  sides.  That, 
perhaps,  is  the  most  important  characteristic  of  Scientific 
Management. 

In  order  to  explain  what  Scientific  Management  is,  I  want 
to  present  first  what  I  believe  all  of  you  gentlemen  will  recog- 
nize as  the  best  of  the  older  types  of  management  and  to 
contrast  with  that  type  the  principles  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. If  you  have  an  establishment  with  500  or  1,000  men, 
there  will  be,  perhaps,  twenty  different  trades  represented. 
Each  of  the  workmen  in  those  trades  has  learned  practi- 
cally all  he  knows  from  watching  other  workmen.  When 
he  was  a  young  apprentice  he  would  watch  a  journeyman, 
imitate  his  motions,  and  finally  perhaps  the  journeyman  would 
get  interested  and  turn  around  and  give  the  boy  a  little  friendly 
advice;  and  thus  the  boy,  merely  by  personal  observation 
and  a  very  small  amount  of  incidental  teaching,  learned  the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  31 

trade.  In  just  this  way  every  operative  in  every  one  of  those 
twenty  different  trades  in  your  establishment  has  learned  his 
trade;  it  has  come  to  him  just  as  it  did  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
from  mouth  to  mouth,  or  rather  from  hand  to  eye,  not  through 
teaching.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  old  traditional  way  of 
learning  a  trade,  this  knowledge  is  the  greatest  asset  that  a 
workman  possesses.  It  is  his  capital. 

The  manufacturer  who  has  any  intelligence  must  realize 
that  his  first  duty  should  be  to  obtain  the  initiative  of  all 
these  tradesmen  who  are  working  under  him,  to  obtain  their 
hard  work,  their  good-will,  their  ingenuity,  their  determina- 
tion to  treat  their  employer's  business  as  if  it  were  their  own. 
And  in  this  connection  I  wish  to  strain  the  meaning  of  the 
word  "initiative"  to  indicate  all  of  those  good  qualities.  It 
should  be  the  first  object  of  a  good  employer  to  obtain  the 
real  initiative  of  his  workmen. 

There  is  an  occasional  employer,  possibly  one  in  a  hundred, 
who  deliberately  sets  out  to  give  his  employees  something 
better  in  the  way  of  wages  and  opportunities  than  his  competi- 
tors give  their  men.  These  very  few  rare  employers  who  are 
farther  sighted  than  the  average,  deliberately  set  out  to  give 
their  men  a  special  incentive,  and  in  return  they  expect,  and 
they  frequently  get,  from  their  men  an  initiative  which  other 
employers  do  not  dream  of  getting.  However,  this  initiative 
is  generally  spasmodic.  Workmen  come  to  have  confidence 
in  their  superintendent,  or  in  their  foreman,  and  in  the  honor 
of  their  company;  and  when  the  superintendent  tells  them 
that  he  intends  to  have  them  earn  more  money  than  other 
employers  are  paying  their  workmen,  they  believe  it  and 
respond  in  a  generous  way.  But  I  want  to  tell  what  happens 
almost  always,  even  in  such  a  case :  some  new  workman  comes 
in  for  whom  they  have  respect;  he  tells  the  men  the  usual 
story;  that  the  same  promise  had  been  made  to  him  or  to 
friends  of  his  in  some  other  shop  by  a  foreman,  a  square  man, 
but  it  happened  that  that  foreman  died,  or  was  replaced,  or 
the  board  of  directors  did  just  what  I  outlined  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  then  those  promises  went  to  the  winds,  and  the 


$2  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

men  found  themselves  working  harder  than  before  at  the  old 
wages.  When  a  man  comes  in  among  them  and  tells  them 
that  story  the  men  think,  "Perhaps  that  is  so,  —  it  is  likely 
to  happen  in  our  shop;  I  guess  we  had  better  not  work  too 
hard,"  and  they  slow  down.  Finally,  as  they  think  it  over 
and  realize  that  their  foreman  can  be  relied  on,  they  say, 
"This  fellow  is  all  right,  he  can't  treat  us  like  that,  we  have 
got  to  be  square,"  and  eventually  they  will  work  hard  again. 
But  under  the  old  system  the  initiative  of  the  workmen  is 
obtained  spasmodically  at  best;  it  is  rarely  obtained  to  the 
fullest  extent. 

The  first  advantage  which  Scientific  Management  has  over 
the  older  type  is  that  under  Scientific  Management  the  initia- 
tive of  the  workmen  is  obtained  with  absolute  regularity; 
their  hard  work,  good-will  and  ingenuity  are  obtained  with 
absolute  regularity.  I  refer  of  course  only  to  those  cases  in 
which  Scientific  Management  is  actually  introduced  and  in 
operation,  not  where  it  has  just  been  started;  but  in  practi- 
cally all  cases  where  Scientific  Management  has  been  once 
established  the  initiative  of  the  workmen  is  obtained  with 
absolute  regularity.  That  alone  is  a  marked  advantage  of 
Scientific  Management  over  the  best  of  the  other  types. 

This  is  not,  however,  die  greatest  advantage  of  Scientific 
Management.  This  is  the  lesser  of  two  advantages.  The 
greater  advantage  comes  from  the  new  and  unheard-of  burdens 
and  duties  which  are  assumed  by  the  men  in  the  management, 
duties  which  have  never  been  performed  before  by  the  men 
on  the  management  side.  These  new  duties  are  divided  into 
four  large  classes  which  have  been,  properly  or  improperly, 
called  "The  Four  Principles  of  Scientific  Management." 

The  first  of  these  four  great  duties  which  are  undertaken 
by  the  management  is  to  deliberately  gather  in  all  of  the  rule- 
of-thumb  knowledge  which  is  possessed  by  all  the  twenty 
different  kinds  of  tradesmen  who  are  at  work  in  the  establish- 
ment, —  knowledge  which  has  never  been  recorded,  which 
is  in  the  heads,  hands,  and  bodies,  in  the  knack,  skill,  dex- 
terity which  these  men  possess  —  to  gather  that  knowledge, 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  33 

classify  it,  tabulate  it,  and  in  most  cases  reduce  it  to  laws  and 
rules;  in  many  cases,  work  out  mathematical  formulae  which, 
when  applied  with  the  cooperation  of  the  management  to  the 
work  of  the  men,  will  lead  to  an  enormous  increase  of  the  out- 
put of  the  workmen.  That  is  the  first  of  the  four  great  prin- 
ciples of  Scientific  Management,  the  development  of  a  science 
to  replace  the  old  rule-of-thumb  knowledge  of  the  workmen. 

The  second  of  the  new  duties  assumed  by  the  management 
is  the  scientific  selection  and  then  the  progressive  development 
of  the  workmen.  The  workmen  are  studied;  it  may  seem 
preposterous,  but  they  are  studied  just  as  machines  have  been 
studied  in  the  past  and  are  being  more  than  ever  studied. 
In  the  past  we  have  given  a  great  deal  of  study  to  machines 
and  little  to  workmen,  but  under  Scientific  Management  the 
workman  becomes  the  subject  of  far  more  careful  and  accurate 
study  than  was  ever  given  to  machines.  After  we  have  studied 
the  workman,  so  that  we  know  his  possibilities,  we  then  pro- 
ceed, as  one  friend  to  another,  to  try  to  develop  every  work- 
man in  our  employ,  so  as  to  bring  out  his  best  faculties  and 
to  train  him  to  do  a  higher,  more  interesting  and  more  profit- 
able class  of  work  than  he  has  done  in  the  past.  This  is  the 
second  of  the  principles  of  Scientific  Management. 

The  third  duty  is  to  bring  the 'scientifically  selected  work- 
man and  the  science  together.  They  must  be  brought  together; 
they  will  not  come  together  without  it.  I  do  not  wish  for  an 
instant  to  have  any  one  think  I  have  a  poor  opinion  of  a  work- 
man; far  from  it.  I  am  merely  stating  a  fact  when  I  say  that 
you  may  put  your  scientific  methods  before  a  workman  all  you 
are  a  mind  to,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  he  will  do  the  same  old 
way.  Unless  some  one  brings  the  science  and  the  workman 
together,  the  workman  will  slip  back  as  sure  as  fate  into  the 
same  old  ways,  and  will  not  practise  the  better,  the  scientific, 
method.  When  I  say,  make  the  workman  do  his  work  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  science,  I  do  not  say  make  in  an 
arbitrary  sense.  If  I  did  it  would  apply  far  more  to  the 
employing  than  to  the  working  class,  because  in  the  work 
of  changing  from  the  old  to  the  new  system,  nine-tenths  of 


34  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

our  troubles  are  concerned  with  those  on  the  management 
side,  and  only  one-tenth  with  the  workmen.  Those  in  the 
management  are  infinitely  more  stubborn,  infinitely  harder 
to  make  change  their  ways  than  are  the  workmen.  So  I 
want  to  qualify  the  word  make;  it  has  rather  a  hard  sound. 
Some  one  must  inspire  the  men  to  make  the  change,  for  it 
will  not  occur  naturally.  If  you  allow  things  to  wait,  it  will 
not  occur  in  ten  years  when  it  should  occur  in  two  months. 
Some  one  must  take  it  in  hand. 

The  fourth  principle  of  Scientific  Management  is  a  little 
more  difficult  than  the  others  to  make  clear.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  explain  to  the  average  man  what  I  mean  by  it, 
until  he  sees  one  of  our  companies  organized  under  Scientific 
Management. 

The  fourth  principle  is  a  deliberate  division  of  the  work 
which  was  formerly  done  by  the  workmen  into  two  sections, 
one  of  which  is  handed  over  to  the  management.  An  immense 
mass  of  new  duties  is  thrown  on  the  management  which  for- 
merly belonged  to  the  workmen.  And  it  is  this  handing  of 
duties  which  they  never  dreamed  of  assuming  before  over  to 
those  on  the  management  side,  requiring  cooperation  between 
the  management  and  the  workmen,  which  accounts  more 
than  anything  else  for  the  fact  that  there  has  never  been  a 
strike  under  Scientific  Management.  If  you  and  I  are  doing 
a  piece  of  work  together,  and  realize  that  we  are  mutually 
dependent  upon  one  another,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  quarrel. 
We  may  quarrel,  perhaps,  during  the  first  few  days.  Some 
men  find  it  difficult  to  cooperate.  But  when  they  once  get 
to  going  and  see  that  the  prosperity  of  both  sides  depends 
on  each  man  doing  his  share  of  the  work,  what  is  there  to 
strike  about?  They  realize  they  cannot  strike  against  the 
friend  who  is  helping  them.  That  is  what  it  is,  a  case  of  help- 
fulness. I  think  I  can  say  truthfully  that  under  Scientific 
Management  the  managers  are  more  the  servants  of  the  men 
than  the  men  are  the  servants  of  the  managers.  I  think  I 
can  say  that  the  sense  of  obligation  is  greater  on  the  part 
of  the  management  than  on  the  part  of  the  men.  They 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  35 

have  to  do  their  share  and  be  always  ready.  That  is  the 
feeling  of  those  on  the  management  side  under  Scientific 
Management. 

In  order  to  make  that  equal  division  a  little  clearer,  I 
will  say  that  in  one  of  our  machine  shops,  for  instance  where 
we  do  miscellaneous  work,  not  work  that  is  repeated  over 
and  over  again,  there  will  be  at  least  one  man  on  the  manage- 
ment side  for  every  three  workmen  throughout  the  whole 
establishment.  That  indicates  a  real  division  of  work  be- 
tween the  two  sides.  And  those  men  on  the  management 
side  are  busy,  just  as  busy  as  the  workmen,  and  far  more 
profitably  busy  than  they  were  before. 

Let  me  repeat  briefly  these  four  principles  of  Scientific 
Management.  I  want  you  to  see  these  four  principles  plainly 
as  the  essence  of  the  illustration  I  am  going  to  give  you 
of  Scientific  Management.  They  are  the  development  of 
a  science  to  replace  the  old  rule-of -thumb  methods;  the 
scientific  selection  and  then  the  progressive  teaching  and 
development  of  the  workmen;  the  bringing  of  the  scien- 
tifically selected  workmen  and  the  science  together;  and 
then  this  almost  equal  division  of  the  work  between  the 
management  and  the  men. 

Twish  to  convince  you  of  the  importance  of  these  principles. 
So  far  what  I  have  said  has  been  mere  assertion.  The  only 
means  that  I  have  of  convincing  you  of  the  value  of  these 
principles  is  to  give  illustrations  of  their  application.  But  I 
fear  my  time  is  too  short  to  give  more  than  two  or  three. 

I  usually  begin  with  the  most  elementary  kind  of  labor 
that  I  know,  and  try  to  show  the  immense  power  of  those 
four  principles  when  applied  even  to  that  extraordinarily 
elementary  form  of  labor.  The  simplest  kind  of  work  that 
I  know  is  handling  pig  iron.  A  man  stoops  down  to  the 
ground  or  a  pile,  picks  up  with  his  hands  a  piece  of  pig  iron 
weighing  usually  about  ninety  pounds,  walks  a  certain  number 
of  steps  and  drops  it  on  a  pile  or  on  the  ground.  I  dare  say 
that  it  seems  preposterous  to  you  to  say  that  there  is  any  such 
thing  as  the  science  of  handling  pig  iron,  that  there  is  any 


36  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

such  thing  as  the  training  of  a  workman  and  the  cooperation 
and  the  equal  division  of  the  work  between  the  two  sides  in 
handling  pig  iron.  It  seems  absolutely  preposterous.  But 
I  assure  you  that  had  I  time  I  could  convince  every  one  of 
you  that  there  is  a  great  science  in  handling  pig  iron.  It 
takes  a  little  too  long  to  give  that  particular  illustration, 
and  I  very  much  regret  that  I  must  begin  with  a  form  of 
labor  which  is  far  more  scientific  than  handling  pig  iron, 
namely,  shoveling  dirt. 

I  dare  say  that  you  think  there  is  no  science  in  shoveling 
dirt,  that  any  one  can  shovel  dirt.  "Why,"  you  say,  "to 
shovel  it  you  just  shovel,  that  is  all  there  is  to  it."  Those 
who  have  had  anything  to  do  with  Scientific  Management 
realize,  however,  that  there  is  a  best  way  in  doing  everything, 
and  that  that  best  way  can  always  be  formulated  into  certain 
rules;  that  you  can  get  your  knowledge  away  from  the  old 
chaotic  rule-of-thumb  knowledge  into  organized  knowledge. 
And  if  any  one  of  you  should  start  to  find  the  most  important 
element  in  the  science  of  shoveling,  every  one  of  you  with  a 
day's  or  two  days'  thought  would  be  on  the  track  of  finding 
it.  You  would  not  find  it  in  a  day,  but  you  would  know  what 
to  look  for.  We  found  it  after  we  started  to  think  on  the 
subject  of  shoveling.  And  what  is  it?  There  are  very  many 
elements,  but  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  this  important 
one.  At  what  shovel-load  will  a  man  do  his  biggest  day's 
work?  There  must  be  some  best  shovel-load;  what  is  it? 

The  workers  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company,  for  instance, 
almost  all  owned  their  own  shovels,  and  I  have  seen  them 
go  day  after  day  to  the  same  shovel  for  every  kind  of  work, 
from  shoveling  rice  coal,  three  and  a  half  pounds  to  a  shovel- 
load,  to  shoveling  heavy  wet  ore,  about  thirty-eight  pounds 
to  the  shovel-load.  Is  three  and  a  half  pounds  right  or  is 
thirty-eight  pounds  right?  Now  the  moment  the  question 
"What  is  the  proper  shovel-load?"  is  asked  under  Scientific 
Management,  it  does  not  become  the  duty  of  the  manager 
to  ask  some  one,  to  ask  any  shoveler,  what  is  the  best.  The 
old  style  was,  "John,  how  much  ought  you  to  take  on  your 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  37 

shovel?"  Under  Scientific  Management  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  management  to  know  what  is  the  best,  not  to  take  what 
some  one  thinks.  We  selected  two  first-class  shovelers. 
Never  examine  any  one  but  a  first-class  man.  By  first-class 
I  do  not  mean  something  impossible  to  get,  or  even  difficult 
to  get.  Very  few  people  know  what  you  mean  when  you 
say  first-class.  I  think  I  can  explain  it  to  you  better  by 
talking  about  something  with  which  we  are  all  familiar. 
We  know  mighty  little  about  men,  but  there  is  hardly  one  of 
us  here  who  does  not  know  a  good  deal  about  horses,  because 
we  are  in  the  habit  of  studying  horses.  Now  if  you  have  a 
stable  full  of  horses  containing  large  dray  horses,  carriage 
horses,  saddle  horses  and  so  on,  and  want  to  pick  a  first-class 
horse  for  hauling  a  coal  wagon,  I  know  every  one  of  you  here 
would  take  the  dray  horse.  I  do  not  believe  any  of  you 
would  take  the  trotting  horse  and  call  him  first-class  at  all. 
That  is  what  I  mean  when  I  say  first-class  man.  If  you  have 
a  very  small  stable,  when  you  have  a  good  deal  of  coal  to 
haul  you  may  have  to  hitch  your  trotting  horse  to  a  light 
grocery  wagon  or  even  to  your  buggy  to  haul  coal.  But  that 
is  not  a  first-class  horse  for  the  purpose,  and  no  one  would 
think  of  studying  a  trotting  horse  hauling  a  buggy  of  coal 
to  find  what  a  first-class  horse  should  do  in  hauling  coal. 
There  are  many  people  who  say,  "You  are  looking  for  impos- 
sible people;  you  are  setting  a  pace  that  nobody  can  live  up 
to."  Not  at  all.  We  are  taking  the  man  adapted  to  the 
work  we  wish  done. 

So  when  we  wanted  to  study  the  science  of  shoveling  we 
took  two  men  and  said,  "You  are  good  shovelers;  we  want 
you  to  work  squarely.  We  are  going  to  ask  you  to  do  a  lot 
of  fool  things,  and  we  are  going  to  pay  you  double  wages 
while  this  investigation  is  going  on.  It  will  probably  last 
two  or  three  months.  This  man  will  be  over  you  all  day 
long  with  a  stop-watch.  He  will  time  you;  he  will  count 
the  shovel-loads  and  tell  you  what  to  do.  He  does  not  want 
you  to  hurry;  just  go  at  your  ordinary  fair  pace.  But  if 
either  of  you  fellows  tries  to  soldier  on  us,  that  will  be  the 


38  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

end  of  it;  we  will  find  you  out  as  sure  as  you  are  born,  and 
we  will  fire  you  out  of  this  place.  All  we  want  is  a  square 
day's  work;  no  soldiering.  If  you  don't  want  to  take  that 
job,  don't,  but  if  you  do  we  are  very  glad  to  pay  you  double 
wages  while  you  are  doing  it."  These  men  said  they  would 
be  very  glad  to  do  it,  and  they  were  perfectly  square;  they 
were  ready  to  do  a  fair  day's  work.  That  was  all  we  asked 
of  them,  not  something  that  would  tire  them  out  or  exhaust 
them,  but  something  they  could  live  under  forty  years  and 
be  all  right. 

We  began  by  taking  the  maximum  load  on  the  shovel 
and  counting  the  shovelfuls  all  day  long  and  weighing  the 
tonnage  at  the  end  of  the  day.  I  think  it  was  about  thirty- 
eight  pounds  to  the  shovel.  We  found  how  much  those  men 
could  do  when  they  were  shoveling  at  thirty-eight  pounds  to 
the  shovel  on  an  average.  And  then  we  got  shorter  shovels 
holding  about  thirty-four  pounds,  and  measured  the  tonnage 
per  day,  and  it  was  greater  than  when  they  were  using  the 
thirty-eight  pound  shovel.  They  shoveled  more  with  the 
thirty-four  pound  shovel-loads  than  with  the  thirty-eight 
pound  shovel-loads.  Again  we  reduced  the  load  to  thirty 
pounds  and  they  did  a  still  greater  tonnage;  again  to  twenty- 
eight  pounds,  and  another  increase;  and  the  load  kept  on 
increasing  as  we  diminished  the  shovel-load  until  we  reached 
about  twenty-one  pounds;  at  twenty-one  pounds  the  man 
did  his  biggest  day's  work.  With  twenty  pounds,  with  eight- 
een pounds,  with  seventeen,  and  with  fourteen,  they  did 
again  a  smaller  day's  work.  Starting  with  a  thirty-eight 
pound  shovel,  they  went  higher  and  higher  until  the  biggest 
day's  work  was  done  with  a  twenty-one  pound  shovel;  but 
when  they  got  the  lighter  shovel  the  load  went  down  as  the 
shovel-load  diminished. 

The  foundation  of  that  part  of  the  science  of  shoveling, 
then,  lies  in  always  giving  a  shoveler  a  shovel  which  will  hold 
twenty-one  pounds,  whatever  the  material  he  is  using. 

What  were  the  consequences  of  that?  In  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Works  we  had  to  build  a  shovel-room  for  our  common 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  39 

laborers.  Up  to  that  time  the  men  had  owned  their  own 
shovels.  We  had  to  equip  this  room  with  eight  or  ten  different 
kinds  of  shovels,  so  that  whatever  the  man  went  at,  whether 
rice  coal  on  the  one  hand,  or  very  heavy  ore  on  the  other, 
he  would  have  just  a  twenty-one  pound  load.  That  meant 
organization  in  place  of  no  organization. 

It  meant  also  arranging  that  each  one  of  the  laborers  in 
that  yard  had  the  right  shovel  every  day  for  the  kind  of 
material  he  was  going  to  work  on.  That  required  more 
organization.  In  place  of  the  old-fashioned  foreman  who 
walked  around  with  his  men  to  work  with  them,  telling  them 
what  to  do,  it  meant  the  building  of  a  large,  elaborate  labor 
office  where  three  college  men  worked,  besides  their  clerks 
and  assistants,  planning  the  work  for  each  of  these  workmen 
at  least  one  day  in  advance.  That  yard  was  about  two 
miles  long  and  half  a  mile  wide;  you  cannot  scatter  500 
to  600  men  over  a  space  of  that  size,  doing  all  kinds  of 
miscellaneous  work,  and  get  the  man,  the  shovel  and  the 
other  implements,  and  the  work  together  at  the  right  time 
unless  you  have  an  organization.  It  meant,  then,  building 
a  big  labor  office  and  playing  a  game  of  chess  one  day  in 
advance  with  these  500  men,  locating  them  just  as  you 
would  locate  chessmen  on  your  board.  It  required  a  time- 
table and  a  knowledge  of  how  long  it  took  them  to  do 
each  kind  of  work. 

It  meant  also  informing  the  men  each  day  just  what  they 
had  done  the  day  before  and  just  what  they  were  to  do  that 
day.  In  order  to  do  that,  as  each  man  came  in  the  morning 
he  had  to  reach  his  hand  up  to  a  pigeonhole  (most  of  them 
could  not  read  and  write,  but  they  could  all  find  their  pigeon- 
holes) and  take  out  two  slips  of  paper.  One  was  a  yellow 
slip  and  one  was  a  white  slip.  If  they  found  the  yellow  slip, 
those  men  who  could  not  read  and  write  knew  perfectly 
well  what  it  meant;  it  was  just  the  general  information: 
"Yesterday  you  did  not  earn  the  money  that  a  first-class 
man  ought  to  earn.  We  want  you  to  earn  at  least  60  per 
cent  beyond  what  other  laborers  are  paid  around  Bethlehem. 


40  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

You  failed  to  earn  that  much  yesterday;  there  is  something 
wrong."  It  is  merely  a  notice  to  the  man  that  there  is  some- 
thing wrong.  The  other  piece  of  paper  told  him  what  imple- 
ment to  use.  He  went  to  the  tool-room,  presented  it,  received 
the  proper  implement,  and  took  it  down  to  the  part  of  the 
yard  in  which  he  was  to  work. 

When  any  of  these  workmen  fell  down  for  three  or  four 
days  in  succession,  the  old  way  would  be  to  call  him  up  and 
say,  "Here,  John,  you  are  no  good;  get  out  of  this;  you  are 
not  doing  a  day's  work.  I  don't  have  any  man  here  who 
is  not  doing  a  day's  work.  Now  get  out  of  this."  But  that 
is  not  the  way  with  Scientific  Management.  The  moment 
the  management  sees  that  this  man  has  fallen  down,  that  it 
is  something  more  than  an  accident,  then  a  teacher  —  not 
a  bulldozer,  but  a  teacher  —  is  sent  out  to  him  to  find  out 
what  is  the  matter,  and  to  study  the  man  for  the  purpose 
of  correcting  his  fault.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  that  teacher 
would  perhaps  find  that  the  man  had  simply  forgotten  some- 
thing about  the  art  of  shoveling.  I  suppose  you  are  skeptical 
about  this  "art  of  shoveling,"  but  let  me  tell  you  there  is  a 
great  deal  to  it.  We  have  found  that  the  most  efficient  method 
of  shoveling  is  to  put  your  right  arm  down  on  your  right  hip, 
hold  your  shovel  on  your  left  leg,  and  when  you  shovel  into 
the  pile  throw  the  weight  of  your  body  upon  the  shovel.  It 
does  not  take  any  muscle  to  do  that;  the  weight  of  your 
body  throws  it  if  you  get  your  arm  braced.  But  if  you 
attempt  to  do  as  most  shovelers  do,  take  it  with  your  arms 
and  shove  into  a  stubborn  pile,  you  are  wasting  a  great  deal 
of  effort.  Time  and  again  we  found  that  a  man  had  forgotten 
his  instructions  and  was  throwing  the  weight  of  his  arms 
instead  of  the  weight  of  his  body.  The  teacher  would  go  to 
him  and  say,  "You  have  forgotten  what  I  told  you  about 
shoveling;  I  don't  wonder  you  are  not  getting  your  premium; 
you  ought  to  be  getting  60  per  cent  more  money.  You 
are  falling  out  of  the  first  class.  Now  I  want  to  show  you 
again.  Just  watch  the  way  this  thing  is  done."  The  teacher 
would  stand  by  him  as  a  friend  and  show  him  how  to  earn  his 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  41 

premium.  Or  perhaps  if  he  found  that  the  man  was  really 
not  suited  to  that  work,  for  instance  that  he  was  too  light  for 
it,  the  man  would  then  be  transferred  to  a  lighter  kind  of 
work  for  which  he  was  suited.  It  is  in  that  way,  by  kindly 
and  intimate  personal  study  of  them,  that  we  find  to  what 
workmen  are  adapted. 

All  of  that  takes  money,  and  it  is  an  important  and  very 
fair  question  whether  it  pays.  Can  you  pay  for  all  these 
time-study  men  who  are  developing  the  art  of  shoveling? 
Can  you  pay  for  your  shovel  tool-room,  for  the  telephone 
system  and  all  the  clerks  and  teachers?  The  only  answer 
to  that  is  these  facts.  At  the  end  of  about  three  years  we 
had  practically  the  whole  of  the  yard  labor  of  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Works  transferred  from  the  old  piece-work  and  day-work 
plan  to  the  new  scientific  plan.  Those  workmen  under  the 
old  plan  had  earned  $1.15  a  day.  Under  the  new  plan  they 
earned  $i  .85  a  day,  an  increase  of  more  than  60  per  cent  in 
wages.  We  had  them  studied  and  a  report  made.  We 
found  that  they  were  practically  all  sober,  that  most  of  them 
were  saving  some  little  money,  that  they  lived  better  than 
they  ever  had  before,  and  that  they  were  as  contented  a  set 
of  men  as  could  be  found  together  anywhere,  a  magnificent 
body  of  carefully  selected  men.  That  is  what  the  men  got 
out  of  it. 

What  did  the  company  get  out  of  it?  The  old  cost  for 
handling  a  ton  of  materials  in  the  yard  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel 
Company  was  between  seven  and  eight  cents  a  ton.  The 
new  cost,  after  all  the  costs  of  the  clerical  work  in  the  office 
and  the  tool-room,  of  the  teaching,  the  telephone  system, 
the  new  implements  and  the  higher  wages,  were  taken  into 
consideration,  was  between  three  and  four  cents  a  ton.  And 
the  actual  cash  saving  to  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company 
during  the  last  year  was  between  $70,000  and  $80,000.  That 
is  what  the  company  got  out  of  it,  and  therefore  the  system 
is  justified  from  the  points  of  view  both  of  the  men  and  of 
the  management. 

I  am  very  sure  that  I  could  convince  you  that  the  ratio 


42  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

of  gain  of  Scientific  Management  when  applied  to  a  trade 
that  requires  a  high-class  mechanic,  is  far  greater  than  when 
applied  to  work  like  shoveling.  The  difficulty  which  I  find  is 
to  convince  men  of  the  universality  of  these  principles,  that 
they  are  applicable  to  all  kinds  of  human  effort.  I  should 
like  to  convince  you,  I  am  sure  that  I  could  convince  you, 
that  with  any  of  the  more  intricate  kinds  of  work,  the  gain 
must  be  enormously  greater  than  with  the  simple  work;  that 
no  high-class  mechanic  can  possibly  do  what  he  should  for 
his  own  sake  and  for  the  employer's  sake,  without  the  friendly 
cooperation  of  a  man  on  the  management  side.  That  is 
what  I  should  like  to  prove  to  you,  prove  beyond  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt. 

Take  the  case  of  a  machinist  who  is  doing  work  that  is 
repeated,  we  will  say,  over  and  over  again.  He  is  not  the 
highest  class  mechanic,  but  he  is  fairly  well  up.  It  may  be 
questioned  whether  it  is  possible  for  any  scientific  knowledge 
to  help  an  intelligent  mechanic,  a  man,  for  instance,  who  has 
had  a  high  school  education  and  who  has  worked  for  his  whole 
life  as  a  machinist.  I  want  to  show  you  that  that  man  needs 
the  help  of  —  not  a  higher  order  of  man,  nothing  of  that  sort, 
but  of  a  man  with  a  different  type  of  education  from  his  own; 
that  the  skilled  workman  needs  it  far  more  even  than  the 
cheap  laborer  needs  it  in  order  to  do  his  work  right. 

I  take  an  actual  case,  that  of  a  shop  manufacturing  small 
machines.  This  was  a  department  of  a  large  company  which 
had  been  running  under  the  old  system  many  years.  The 
article  was  a  patented  device  that  had  been  manufactured 
in  this  department  about  twelve  years,  perhaps  more,  by  some 
300  workmen.  These  articles  varied  somewhat  in  size  but 
they  were  made  by  the  thousands.  The  men  would  naturally 
become  highly  skilled.  Each  man  had  his  own  machine, 
ran  it  from  year  end  to  year  end,  made  comparatively  few 
parts,  and  therefore  became  skilled  in  his  work. 

Now  the  owner  of  this  establishment  was  a  very  progressive 
man,  and  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  wanted  to  inves- 
tigate Scientific  Management.  So  he  sent  for  my  friend, 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  43 

Mr.  Earth,  to  see  what  Mr.  Earth  could  do  for  him.  After 
they  had  had  a  little  sparring  on  the  subject,  Mr.  Earth  rather 
mortified  the  owner  by  telling  him  that  he  could  come  pretty 
close  to  doubling  the  output  of  his  shop.  After  they  had 
sparred  a  little  over  that,  Mr.  Earth  suggested  that  he  make 
a  test  to  show  the  men  in  the  shop  what  he  could  do.  So  a 
typical  machine  was  selected,  a  machine  which  they  both 
agreed  was  fairly  representative  of  the  machines  in  the  shop, 
and  the  work  which  was  then  being  done  noted;  the  kind  of 
work,  the  character  of  it  and  the  time  which  it  should  take 
to  do  it  was  written  down.  Then  Mr.  Earth  proceeded  to 
study  the  machine,  in  just  the  way  under  Scientific  Manage- 
ment all  machines  are  analyzed  in  all  shops  that  we  go  to. 
We  do  not  go  to  some  foreman  or  superintendent,  or  to  the 
maker  of  the  machine,  and  ask,  "How  fast  do  you  think  we 
should  run  this  machine?"  Not  at  all.  A  careful,  thorough 
analysis  was  made  of  the  possibilities  of  that  machine,  and 
to  do  that  Mr.  Earth  used  four  slide-rules.  One  slide-rule 
will  solve  any  problem  in  gearing  in  almost  no  time.  It  is  a 
gear  slide-rule.  Another  solves  any  problem  about  belts 
in  a  fraction  of  a  minute.  Another  tells  you  how  many 
pounds  pressure  a  chip  of  any  shape  or  kind  will  exert  on 
the  cutting  tool,  and  therefore  shows  you  how  much  resist- 
ance you  have  to  overcome  with  your  machine.  The  fourth 
slide-rule  tells  you  what  cutting- speed  you  can  use  with  any 
kind  of  metal,  with  any  depth  of  cut,  with  any  feed  and 
with  any  shape  tool. 

Now  with  these  four  rules  it  is  possible  scientifically  to 
analyze  the  machine,  to  know  how  it  should  be  speeded  for 
the  particular  kind  of  work  that  is  in  hand.  And  let  me  tell 
you  —  this  may  seem  an  extraordinary  statement  —  let  me 
tell  you  that  there  is  not  one  machine  in  fifty  in  the  average 
machine  shop  in  this  country  that  is  speeded  right.  I  say 
that  with  all  confidence.  I  say  it  with  perfect  confidence, 
because  last  spring  I  was  invited  by  the  tool  builders,  the 
makers  of  these  machines,  to  address  them  at  their  annual 
meeting,  and  I  challenged  them  to  contradict  that  fact. 


44  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

They  were  there,  representatives  of  the  tool  builders  of  this 
country,  and  not  one  man  took  up  my  challenge.  They 
knew,  just  as  well  as  I  know,  that  their  speeds  are  nine-tenths 
guess  and  one-tenth  knowledge,  that  they  do  not  take  into 
consideration  the  peculiarities  of  the  shop  their  machines  go 
into,  in  one  case  in  fifty.  They  have  no  means  of  knowing 
the  kind  of  material  the  machines  are  to  cut,  and  the  machines 
are  speeded  practically  the  same  for  every  shop  they  go  to, 
whereas  each  machine  should  be  speeded  to  suit  the  average 
of  the  work  that  is  to  be  done  in  a  particular  shop. 

After  Mr.  Earth  had  inspected  that  machine  by  means  of 
these  slide-rules,  in  two  or  three  hours  he  was  able  to 
write  the  prescription  for  it,  showing  what  should  be  done 
to  have  it  right.  And  then,  after  he  had  given  directions 
to  have  the  machine  speeded  right,  he  went  home  and  made  a 
slide-rule  by  means  of  which,  when  he  returned  to  the  shop, 
he  was  able  to  show  the  workmen,  the  foreman,  and  the  owner 
of  that  shop  just  how  the  machine  should  be  run  in  various 
cases.  Pieces  of  metal  were  put  into  the  machine,  similar  to 
those  which  were  ordinarily  run  in  it,  and  his  smallest  gain 
was  two  and  a  half  times  as  much,  and  his  largest  gain  nine 
times  as  much  work  as  had  been  done  before.  That  is  typical 
of  what  can  be  done  in  the  average  machine  shop  in  this 
country. 

Why?  Because  the  science  of  cutting  metals  is  a  true 
science,  and  because  the  machine  shops  of  this  country  are 
run,  we  can  almost  say,  without  the  slightest  reference  to 
that  science.  They  are  run  by  the  old  rule-of-thumb  method 
just  as  they  were  fifty  years  ago.  The  science  is  almost 
neglected,  and  yet  it  is  true  science. 

I  want  to  show  you  in  a  general  way  what  that  science 
is,  so  that  you  will  understand  why  it  is  that  a  man  who 
had  never  seen  that  particular  machine,  who  had  never  seen 
that  work,  was  able  to  compete  with  the  workman  who  had 
been  working  for  ten  or  twelve  years  on  the  same  machine, 
who  had  the  help  of  the  foreman  and  of  his  superintendent, 
—  for  it  was  a  well-run  establishment;  how  a  man  who  had 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  45 

never  seen  that  work,  but  who  was  equipped  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  science,  was  able  to  make  it  do  from  two  and 
a  half  to  nine  times  as  much  work  as  had  been  done  before. 
I  want  to  show  you  what  it  is,  because  that  is  the  essence 
of  Scientific  Management,  the  development  of  a  science  which 
is  of  real  use  when  applied  with  the  cooperation  of  the  man- 
agement to  help  the  workmen. 

I  spoke  at  the  beginning  about  an  ordinary  piece-work 
fight  which  went  on  between  a  foreman  who  tried  to  do  his 
duty  and  his  men.  At  the  end  of  that  bitter  fight  of  two  or 
three  years,  I  obtained  permission  from  William  Sellers,  who 
was  then  the  president  of  the  Midvale  Steel  Works,  to  spend 
some  money  in  educating  the  foreman  of  the  Midvale  Steel 
Works  so  that  he  should  have  at  least  a  fraction  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  men.  And  one  of  the  subjects  which  we  took  up 
at  that  time,  one  in  which  the  foreman  needed  most  educa- 
tion, was  the  science  of  cutting  metals,  for  metal-cutting  was 
the  whole  work  of  the  shop.  And  I  believed,  just  as  Mr. 
Sellers  believed,  just  as  almost  every  mechanic  at  that  time 
believed,  that  the  science  of  cutting  metals  consisted  mainly 
if  not  entirely  in  finding  the  proper  cutting  angles  of  the  tool. 

As  you  all  know,  each  metal-cutting  tool  has,  properly 
speaking,  three  cutting  angles.  It  has  the  clearance  angle, 
the  side  slope  and  the  back  slope.  And  it  was  my  opinion, 
just  as  it  was  the  opinion  of  almost  every  machinist  that  I 
knew,  that  if  you  could  get  the  right  combination  of  cutting 
angles  you  could  cut  steel  and  iron  a  great  deal  faster  than 
we  were  then  doing.  So  we  started  out  to  make  a  careful 
investigation  as  to  what  those  cutting  angles  should  be. 

We  were  exceedingly  fortunate  in  having  what  hardly  any 
shop  in  the  United  States  had  at  that  time,  a  very  large  boring 
room.  We  were  then  making  locomotive  tires.  That  was 
a  considerable  part  of  the  business  of  the  Midvale  Steel 
Works  at  that  time.  We  had  a  very  large  boring  mill  avail- 
able, sixty-six  inches  in  diameter,  and  a  very  large  uniform 
body  of  metal  and  tires  weighing  2,000  pounds  to  put 
on  it.  So  we  had  an  opportunity  to  do  what  very  few 


46  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

people  had  the  opportunity  to  do.  A  sixty-six-inch  diameter 
mill  was  at  that  time  an  unusually  large  one,  so  we  put  our 
tire  on  that  mill  and,  having  enough  metal  in  that  one  piece 
to  run  three  or  four  months,  we  could  eliminate  possible  errors 
resulting  from  variability  of  the  metal.  At  the  end  of  six 
months  we  found  that  these  angles  which  we  supposed  were 
of  the  greatest  consequence  counted  for  but  little  in  the  art 
of  cutting  metals.  The  two  things  which  every  machinist 
must  know  every  time  he  puts  a  piece  of  work  into  his  lathe, 
if  he  wishes  to  do  it  right,  are  the  speed  he  should  run  his 
machine  and  the  feed  he  should  use  in  order  to  do  his  fastest 
work.  Those  two  things  sound  very  simple  indeed.  But 
to  know  them  is  to  know  the  science  of  cutting  metals.  At 
the  end  of  six  months  we  found  that  the  thing  we  were  hunt- 
ing for,  the  question  of  angles,  had  very  little  bearing  on  the 
problem,  but  we  had  unearthed  a  gold  mine  of  possible  infor- 
mation. And  when  I  was  able  to  show  Mr.  Sellers  the  possi- 
bilities of  knowledge  ahead,  he  said  at  once,  "  Go  right  ahead, 
go  on  spending  the  money. "  And  for  practically  twenty- 
six  years,  with  here  and  there  a  year  or  two  of  intermission, 
went  on  that  series  of  experiments  to  determine  the  laws  of 
the  science  of  cutting  metals.  It  was  found  that  there  were 
twelve  great  variable  elements  which  enter  into  metal-cutting 
operations.  All  that  was  done  in  twenty-six  years  was  to 
investigate  these  twelve  elements,  to  find  out  the  facts  con- 
nected with  them,  to  record  and  tabulate  these  facts,  to  reduce 
them  to  mathematical  formulae,  and  finally  to  make  those 
mathematical  formulae  applicable  in  everyday  work. 

I  know  that  it  will  seem  almost  inconceivable  that  such 
a  time  should  be  taken,  and  I  want  to  show  you  how 
it  is  possible  that  it  took  that  length  of  time.  At  various 
times  in  this  investigation  ten  different  machines  were  built 
and  equipped  and  run  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the 
various  elements  of  this  science.  While  we  were  at  the  Mid- 
vale  Steel  Works  we  had  no  trouble  at  all,  because  they  knew 
the  value  of  the  elements  which  we  were  studying;  they  knew 
the  commercial  value  of  them;  but  after  we  left  there  our 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  47 

only  means  of  continuing  these  experiments  was  to  give  the 
information  which  we  had  up  to  date  in  payment  to  any 
one  who  would  build  us  a  machine  and  furnish  the  labor  and 
materials  to  continue  the  investigation.  So  most  of  these 
ten  different  machines  were  built  in  that  way  by  men  who 
were  willing  and  anxious  to  trade  their  money,  in  the  shape 
of  new  equipment,  new  forgings,  new  castings,  and  new  labor, 
for  the  knowledge  that  had  been  obtained  from  previous 
experiments. 

Let  me  briefly  call  your  attention  to  some  of  the  variable 
elements.  I  will  not  bother  you  with  all  the  twelve,  but  I 
want  to  let  you  see  enough  of  them  to  appreciate  what  I  mean 
by  this  science  of  cutting  metals.  Investigations  similar  to 
this  are  bound  to  be  made  in  every  industry  in  this  country, 
scientific  investigations  of  those  elements  which  go  to  make 
up  the  science,  whatever  that  science  is;  that  is  the  reason 
why  I  am  dwelling  on  it.  It  is  not  an  isolated  case.  It  is 
perhaps  the  longest-drawn-out  investigation  that  has  been 
made,  but  it  is  simply  typical  of  what  is  bound  to  take  place 
in  every  industry. 

One  of  the  first  discoveries  which  we  made  —  and  it  seems 
an  exceedingly  simple  one  —  was  that  if  you  throw  a  stream 
of  water  on  the  chip  and  tool  at  the  point  at  which  the  shaving 
of  iron  is  being  cut  off  from  the  forging,  you  can  increase  your 
cutting  speed  40  per  cent.  You  have  a  40  per  cent  gain 
just  by  doing  that  little  thing  alone.  That  we  found  out 
within  the  first  six  months.  Mr.  Sellers  had  the  courage  of 
his  convictions;  he  did  not  believe  it  at  first,  but  when  we 
proved  to  him  that  it  was  true,  he  tore  down  the  old  shop  and 
replaced  it  with  another  so  as  to  get  that  40  per  cent 
increase  in  the  cutting  speed.  He  built  a  shop  with  water 
drains  extending  under  the  floor  to  carry  off  the  water  with 
which  the  tools  were  cooled  to  a  central  settling  tank;  from 
there  it  was  pumped  up  again  to  a  tank  in  the  roof  and  carried 
from  there  through  proper  piping  to  every  tool,  so  that  the 
workman  did  not  need  to  spend  much  time  in  adjusting  a 
stream  which  would  flow  on  to  any  tool  in  any  position.  He 


48  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

was  a  broad  enough  man  to  see  that  it  paid  him  to  build  a 
new  shop  to  get  that  40  per  cent. 

Now  our  competitors  came  right  to  the  Midvale  Steel 
Works  without  any  hesitation.  They  were  invited  to  come 
there,  and  in  twenty  years  just  one  competitor  used  that 
knowledge  and  built  a  shop  in  which  it  was  possible  to  throw 
a  heavy  stream  of  water  on  the  tools,  and  that  was  a  shop 
started  by  men  who  had  left  the  Midvale  Steel  Works  and 
who  knew  enough  to  do  this.  That  shows  the  slowness  of 
men,  in  that  trade  at  least,  to  take  advantage  of  a  40  per 
cent  gain  in  cutting. 

That  is  one  of  the  twelve  elements,  a  very  simple  one,  the 
simplest  of  all.  Let  me  show  you  one  or  two  more. 

There  is  the  old  diamond-point  tool,  used  when  I  was  a 
boy  in  practically  all  shops  throughout  the  country.  One  of 
the  first  suggestions  that  I  had  for  an  experiment  was  from 
Mr.  John  Bancroft,  now  one  of  the  ablest  engineers  in  the 
country.  He  suggested  that  I  try  the  effect  of  using  a  round- 
nose  tool,  with  a  round  cutting-edge.  Hardly  a  single  piece 
of  original  work  was  done  by  us  in  Scientific  Management. 
Everything  that  we  have  has  come  from  the  suggestion  of 
some  one  else.  There  is  no  originality  about  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. And,  gentlemen,  I  am  proud  of  it;  I  am  not  ashamed 
of  it,  because  the  man  who  thinks  he  can  place  his  originality 
against  the  world's  evolution,  against  the  combined  knowledge 
of  the  world,  is  pretty  poor  stuff. 

Now,  that  diamond-point  tool  was  almost  universally  used 
at  that  time,  and  I  do  not  believe  there  is  one  mechanic  in 
fifty  now  who  knows  why  it  was  used.  It  was  used  because 
in  the  primitive  shops,  such  as  the  one  in  which  I  served  my 
apprenticeship,  we  all  had  to  make  and  dress  our  own  tools. 
There  was  no  tool  dresser.  We  would  heat  the  metal,  lay  it  on 
the  edge  of  the  anvil  one  way  and  ask  a  friend  to  hit  it  a  crack, 
and  then  turn  it  around  and  repeat  the  process,  and  simply 
turning  it  and  hitting  it  with  the  sledge  would  give  it  the  dia- 
mond point.  That  is  the  only  reason  why  a  tool  of  that  shape 
was  in  use.  It  was  a  tradition.  It  had  no  scientific  basis. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  49 

After  a  sufficient  number  of  experiments,  we  found  that  a 
round-nose  tool  was  far  superior  to  a  diamond-point  tool, 
but  it  took  a  long  time  after  we  made  that  discovery  before 
we  found  what  kind  of  a  round-nose  tool.  It  took  years 
before  we  were  through  with  the  experiment  to  determine 
what  curve  was  the  best  when  all  things  were  considered, 
because  there  are  many  considerations  which  come  in.  There 
is  the  speed,  the  convenience  of  handling,  the  kind  of  work 
to  be  done,  and  so  on. 

Having,  then,  decided  that  a  round-nose  tool  was  the 
best,  we  had  to  make  another  investigation.  If  you  have  a 
light  cut  taken  on  your  tool  in  one  case,  a  heavy  cut  in  another, 
and  a  still  heavier  one  in  another,  it  is  a  matter  of  plain  com- 
mon sense  that  you  could  of  course  in  one  case  run  a  very 
much  higher  cutting-speed  than  in  another.  How  fast  can 
you  run?  That  is  a  question  for  accurate  scientific  investi- 
gation. The  investigation,  simply  to  determine  that  fact, 
took  altogether,  I  think,  as  much  as  two  years.  And  even 
after  we  had  determined  the  facts,  it  was  many  years  before 
we  finally  got  the  proper  mathematical  expression  of  those 
facts.  That  is  a  totally  different  matter.  Before  we  had 
reduced  our  knowledge  to  a  true  mathematical  formula  which 
could  be  worked  with,  it  was  a  question  of  years. 

The  next  investigation,  perhaps  the  most  spectacular  of 
all,  was  to  answer  the  question,  what  is  the  effect  of  the 
chemical  composition  of  the  tool  and  its  best  treatment? 
The  old-fashioned  tools  when  I  served  my  apprenticeship 
were  all  made  of  carbon  steel.  But  it  has  been  found  that 
by  putting  tungsten  in  those  tools  one  can  make  them  with- 
stand a  higher  amount  of  heat  and  still  not  lose  their  cutting- 
edge.  A  part,  then,  of  the  study  of  the  art  or  science  of 
cutting  metals  was  to  make  a  thorough,  scientific  investiga- 
tion of  the  possibilities  of  alloy  steel,  not  only  with  the  new 
metal  tungsten,  but  with  other  alloys  which  presented  possi- 
bilities; so  we  varied  the  quantities  of  tungsten,  chromium, 
molybdenum  and  one  or  two  other  elements,  until  at  the  end 
of  three  years  of  continuous  experimenting  the  modern  high- 


50  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

speed  steel  was  developed;  that  is,  a  certain  kind  of  steel 
which  when  heated  in  a  certain  revolutionary  way  would 
enable  you  to  run,  to  be  accurate,  just  seven  times  as  fast 
as  with  the  carbon  steel.  The  discovery  of  high-speed  steel 
and  its  treatment  was  the  result  of  investigations.  Most 
people  think  it  was  a  mere  accident,  that  some  fools  were 
fooling  around  and  by  accident  discovered  this  thing;  but  I 
assure  you  three  or  four  years  of  hard  study  and  investigation 
by  chemists  and  metallurgists  working  according  to  the  most 
scientific  methods  were  required.  In  these  various  experi- 
ments $200,000  were  spent  and  from  800,000  to  1,000,000 
pounds  of  metal  were  cut  up  into  chips. 

Perhaps  the  most  difficult  phase  of  the  experiments  was 
getting  steel  of  uniform  hardness  for  experimental  purposes. 
To  carry  on  our  elaborate  experiments  when  high-speed  steel 
came  in,  we  had  to  have  at  least  20,000  pounds  of  metal  to 
experiment  on,  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  20,000 
pounds  which  are  uniform.  We  finally  solved  it  and  obtained 
metal  which  was  sufficiently  uniform  by  using  exactly  the 
same  processes  which  are  used  in  making  the  great  high- 
power  cannon  for  the  army  and  navy.  That  is,  we  forged 
metal  under  a  forging-press,  and  then  oil-tempered  and 
annealed  it  until  we  got  a  uniform  body  of  metal.  The 
tempering  and  annealing  resulted  in  making  the  steel  finer 
and  finer  and  making  all  the  crystallized  structure  uniform. 

I  want  to  explain  why  twenty-six  years  were  necessary  to 
carry  out  these  experiments.  Time  after  time  we  would 
have  to  throw  away  six  months'  work  because  eleven  of  these 
elements  had  slipped  up  while  we  were  experimenting  with 
the  twelfth.  If  hard  spots  appeared  in  the  steel,  a  whole 
line  of  experiments  was  thrown  out  and  we  would  have  to 
get  a  new  forging  and  start  all  over  again.  It  was  the  diffi- 
culty of  that  sort  of  thing,  holding  eleven  elements  constant 
while  we  were  getting  the  twelfth,  which  made  that  problem 
as  difficult  as  it  was.  When  those  experiments  had  first 
been  reduced  to  facts,  and  then  the  facts  to  diagrams,  and 
then  curves  drawn  through  the  diagrams  and  finally  mathe- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  51 

matical  formulae  made  to  fit  those  diagrams,  then  we  were  on 
the  road  towards  the  development  of  a  science.  We  finally 
developed  twelve  formulae  to  represent  the  twelve  variables, 
of  which  this  is  a  specimen: 

v_ "-9 

0.665      £\  °-23«+  18TJ8D 


When  one  has  a  lot  of  mathematical  formulae  of  that  sort, 
it  seems  at  first  the  idea  of  a  lunatic  to  imagine  that  any  one 
could  get  any  use  out  of  them.  That  is,  all  of  our  friends, 
when  they  found  that  our  experiments  were  resulting  in  such 
formulae  as  these,  said,  "Why,  you  are  nothing  but  rank  crazy; 
you  will  never  be  able  to  use  these  things."  And  a  great  work, 
greater  than  the  experiments  which  gave  us  these  formulae,  was 
the  work  of  giving  these  formulae  a  form  which  would  make 
them  usable  for  the  ordinary  machinist.  We  kept  mathema- 
ticians working  on  that  problem  for  about  eighteen  years. 

Now  you  must  realize  that  a  mathematical  problem  with 
twelve  variables  is  a  big  thing.  During  that  time  we  went 
to  the  great  mathematicians  in  the  country,  the  professors 
in  our  universities,  and  offered  them  any  price  to  solve  that 
problem  for  us.  Not  one  of  them  would  touch  it;  they  all 
said,  "You  can  solve  a  problem  with  four  variables  if  you 
have  your  four  equations,  possibly;  beyond  that  it  is  an 
indeterminate  problem,  and  it  is  all  nonsense  thinking  of 
getting  a  mathematical  solution  for  it."  I  dare  say  you 
people  think  I  am  trying  to  prove  that  Mr.  Earth  and  Mr. 
Gantt  and  these  other  gentlemen  are  very  remarkable  men. 
Nothing  of  the  kind.  This  is  the  point  I  want  to  make:  that 
it  is  a  long,  tedious  operation  to  solve  a  problem  of  that  sort, 
or  to  solve  any  of  the  intricate  problems  connected  with  the 
mechanic  arts,  or  those  that  are  going  to  arise  in  any  art. 
It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  do.  But  very  ordinary  men  with 
ordinary  equipment  can  solve  and  make  useful  any  problem, 
I  do  not  care  how  difficult  it  is,  if  they  will  only  give  the  time 
and  the  money  and  the  patience;  they  will  solve  it. 


52  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

At  the  end  of  eighteen  years  these  men  had  devised  a  little 
machine,  a  slide-rule,  which  solves  the  problem  with  twelve 
independent  variables  in  about  twenty  seconds.  That  is 
put  into  the  hands  of  an  ordinary  lathe  man  who  knows 
nothing  about  mathematics,  and  by  means  of  it  that  man 
determines  under  which  one  of  800  or  900  conditions 
pertaining  to  the  particular  job  he  will  do  his  fastest 
work.  It  was  for  that  reason  that  Mr.  Barth,  with  his  slide- 
rule,  was  able  to  more  than  compete  with  the  mechanic  who 
had  spent  twelve  years  in  the  old-fashioned  rule-of-thumb 
way  of  cutting  a  particular  kind  of  metal  on  his  particular 
kind  of  machine;  just  for  that  reason,  because  the  amount 
of  knowledge  which  that  machinist  needed  to  have  in  order 
to  solve  that  problem  was  utterly  impossible  for  any  one  to 
have. 

What  I  am  trying  to  show  you  is,  that  the  more  intelligent 
the  high-class  mechanic  the  more  he  needs  the  help  of  the 
man  with  the  theoretical  knowledge;  he  must  have  it  even 
more  than  the  ordinary  laborer  must  have  it.  And  that  is 
why  this  cooperation,  in  which  the  management  does  one  part 
of  the  work  and  the  workman  another,  must  accomplish 
overwhelmingly  more  work  in  all  cases  than  the  old  method 
of  leaving  to  the  workman  both  the  determining  how  and 
the  performance. 

There  is  just  one  thing  more  that  I  want  to  say;  some- 
thing that  I  am  sure  you  are  all  thinking  of.  I  find  this 
question  in  the  mind  of  every  one  who  is  considering  Scientific 
Management.  It  may  be  that  this  combination  of  the  science 
and  the  workman  turns  out  more  work  than  before,  but 
doesn't  it  make  a  wooden  man  out  of  the  workman?  Doesn't 
it  make  him  a  machine?  Doesn't  it  reduce  him  to  the  level 
of  an  implement? 

I  want  to  give  one  or  two  answers  to  that.  The  first 
is  this:  that  under  the  new  system  every  single  working- 
man  is  raised  up,  is  developed,  is  taught,  so  that  he  can  do  a 
higher,  a  better,  and  a  more  interesting  class  of  work  than 
he  could  before.  The  ordinary  laborer  is  taught  to  run  the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  53 

drill-press  in  the  machine  shop;  the  drill-press  hand  becomes 
a  lathe  hand;  the  lathe  hand  becomes  a  tool  maker,  the  tool 
maker  —  now  I  am  speaking  of  types  of  men,  you  under- 
stand, not  literally  —  the  tool  maker  becomes  one  of  the 
teachers.  He  is  the  man  in  the  planning  room.  He  is  the 
man  who  makes  up  this  one  out  of  three  who  is  transferred 
to  the  management  side,  so  that  the  best  workmen,  who  before 
would  have  remained  workmen,  are  on  the  management  side 
and  become  teachers  and  helpers  of  the  other  workmen.  I 
want  to  emphasize  the  brotherly  feeling  which  exists  under 
Scientific  Management.  It  is  no  longer  a  case  of  master  and 
men,  as  under  the  old  system,  but  it  is  a  case  of  one  friend 
helping  another  and  each  fellow  doing  the  kind  of  work  that 
he  is  best  fitted  for.  You  boys  have  here  in  the  college 
one  pretty  good  piece  of  Scientific  Management,  and  that  is 
football,  —  a  good  case  of  cooperation,  training  and  teaching, 
and  that  is  the  fine  feature  about  football,  that  it  does  enforce 
a  fine  method  of  friendly  cooperation. 

Does  this  make  workmen  into  wooden  men?  Let  us  answer 
the  second  question.  I  have  said,  and  I  repeat,  that  no  one 
claims  any  originality  for  Scientific  Management;  it  was  all 
done  before.  I  do  not  know  of  a  person  who  claims  any 
originality  for  it  whatever.  It  has  simply  taken  what  other 
people  were  doing  before.  Long  before  we  had  any  develop- 
ment of  Scientific  Management,  there  was  in  existence  a  far 
finer  case  of  Scientific  Management  than  we  have  ever  suc- 
ceeded in  developing.  The  finest  mechanic  in  the  world  had 
developed  Scientific  Management  long  before  we  touched  it 
or  ever  dreamed  of  it.  You  all  know  him,  every  one  of  you; 
he  is  the  modern  surgeon.  In  his  operations  five  or  six  men 
cooperate,  each  one  doing  in  turn  just  what  he  should  do. 
How  does  that  finest  mechanic  teach  his  apprentices?  Do 
you  suppose  that  when  the  young  surgeons  come  to  their 
teachers,  the  skilled  surgeons,  they  are  told  first  of  all:  "Now, 
boys,  what  we  want  first  is  your  initiative;  we  want  you  to 
use  your  brains  and  originality  to  develop  the  best  methods 
of  doing  surgical  work.  Of  course  you  know  we  do  have  our 


54  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

own  ways  of  performing  these  operations,  but  don't  let  that 
hamper  you  for  one  instant  in  your  work.  What  we  want 
is  your  originality  and  your  initiative.  Of  course  you  know, 
for  example,  when  we  are  amputating  a  leg  and  come  to  the 
bone,  we  take  a  saw  and  cut  the  bone  off.  Don't  let  that  dis- 
turb you  for  a  minute;  if  you  like  it  better,  take  an  axe,  take 
a  hatchet,  anything  you  please;  what  we  want  is  originality. 
What  we  want  of  all  things  is  originality  on  your  part." 

Now  that  surgeon  says  to  his  apprentices  just  what  we  say 
to  our  apprentices  under  Scientific  Management.  He  says: 
"Not  on  your  life.  We  want  your  originality,  but  we  want 
you  to  invent  upward  and  not  downward.  We  do  not  want 
any  of  your  originality  until  you  know  the  best  method 
of  doing  work  that  we  know,  the  best  method  that  is  now 
known  to  modern  surgery.  So  you  just  get  busy  and  learn 
the  best  method  that  is  known  to  date  under  modern  surgery; 
then,  when  you  have  got  to  the  top  by  the  present  method, 
invent  upward;  then  use  your  originality." 

That  is  exactly  what  we  say  to  our  men.  We  say,  "We 
do  not  know  the  best;  we  are  sure  that  within  two  or  three 
years  a  better  method  will  be  developed  than  we  know  of; 
but  what  we  know  is  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  experi- 
ments and  careful  study  of  every  element  connected  with 
shop  practice;  these  standards  that  lie  before  you  are  the 
results  of  these  studies.  We  ask  you  to  learn  how  to  use 
these  standards  as  they  are,  and  after  that,  the  moment  any 
man  sees  an  improved  standard,  a  better  way  of  doing  any- 
thing than  we  are  doing,  come  to  us  with  it;  your  suggestion 
will  not  only  be  welcome  but  we  will  join  you  in  making  a 
carefully  tried  experiment,  which  will  satisfy  both  you  and  us 
and  any  other  man  that  your  improvement  is  or  is  not  better 
than  anything  before.  If  that  experiment  shows  that  your 
method  is  better  than  ours,  your  method  will  become  our 
method  and  every  one  of  us  will  adopt  that  method  until 
somebody  gets  a  better  one." 

In  that  way  you  are  able  to  apply  a  true  science  to  mechan- 
ical work,  and  only  in  that  way.  If  you  allow  each  man  to 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  55 

do  his  own  way,  just  exactly  as  he  pleases,  without  any  regard 
to  science,  science  melts  right  away.  You  must  have  stand- 
ards. We  get  some  of  our  greatest  improvements  from  the 
workmen  in  that  way.  The  workmen,  instead  of  holding 
back,  are  eager  to  make  suggestions.  When  one  is  adopted 
it  is  named  after  the  man  who  suggested  it,  and  he  is  given  a 
premium  for  having  developed  a  new  standard.  So  in  that 
way  we  get  the  finest  kind  of  team  work,  we  have  true 
cooperation,  and  our  method,  instead  of  inventing  things  that 
were  out  of  date  forty  years  ago,  leads  on  always  to  some- 
thing better  than  has  been  known  before. 


Second  Session 

FRIDAY  FORENOON,  OCTOBER  THE  THIRTEENTH 

CHAIRMAN,  BENJAMIN  A.  KIMBALL 

President  of  the  Concord  and  Montreal  Railroad,  and  President 
of  The  Mechankks  National  Bank,  Concord,  N.  H. 


SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  AND 
THE  LABORER 

INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  CHAIRMAN 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THIS  CONFERENCE  AND  INVITED  GUESTS: 

WE  had  hoped  to  have  with  us  to  preside  at  this 
session  of  the  conference,  Mr.  Edward  Tuck,  of 
Paris  and  New  York,  founder  of  the  Amos  Tuck 
School  of  Administration  and  Finance.  Pressing  engage- 
ments prevented  Mr.  Tuck's  attendance  here,  and  I  have 
been  requested  to  fill  his  place  so  far  as  I  am  able. 

It  is  most  fitting  that  this,  the  first  organized  conference 
on  the  question  of  Scientific  Management,  should  be  held 
in  the  halls  of  Dartmouth,  whose  history  is  linked  so  inti- 
mately with  the  development  of  this  nation.  The  decision 
in  the  famous  Dartmouth  College  case,  rendered  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  more  than  ninety  years 
ago,  established  a  precedent  under  which  the  modern  corpora- 
tion has  developed,  and,  whatever  the  evils  that  have  attended 
the  growth  of  those  great  corporations,  they  have  been  instru- 
ments of  incalculable  value  in  securing  cooperation  in  the 
commercial  and  industrial  development  of  the  United  States. 
The  name  of  Dartmouth  College  has  therefore  been  closely 
identified  with  the  firm  establishment  of  the  idea  of  nationality 
and  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  and  with  it  the  amazing 
prosperity  of  the  country. 

It  now  appears  that  one  of  the  great  questions  facing  the 
progressive  business  manager  of  today,  and  the  question  to 
which  every  manufacturer  and  financier  of  industrial  and  cor- 
porate management  must  give  close  study  and  attention,  is 
that  of  more  economical  production;  and  we  are  assembled 

59 


60  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

here  to  consider  a  phase  of  this  great  problem.  In  our  con- 
sideration of  the  principles  of  Scientific  Management,  we 
must  not  overlook  the  status  of  the  employee.  I  take  great 
pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  Mr.  Henry  L.  Gantt,  Con- 
sulting Engineer,  of  New  York  City,  who  will  adress  us  upon 
"The  Task  and  The  Day's  Work." 


THE  TASK  AND  THE  DAY'S  WORK 

BY  HENRY  L.  GANTT 

Consulting  Engineer,  New  York 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

IT  is  very  important  that  we  have  a  clear  general  under- 
standing of  the  subject  before  going  into  details,  and 
I  wish  to  refer  to  a  point  brought  out  by  Mr.  Taylor 
last  night;  namely,  that  the  work  we  are  doing  has  not  as  Us 
aim  the  development  of  a  series  of  expedients  to  promote  effi- 
ciency. We  are  trying  as  far  as  we  can  to  solve  the  industrial 
problem,  which  is  the  greatest  problem  before  the  country 
today.  In  this  connection,  I  wish  to  say  that  the  circular 
announcing  this  conference  referred  to  several  of  us  who 
were  to  speak  as  "efficiency  engineers."  To  me  the  term 
"engineer"  has  always  stood  for  a  man  whose  business  it  is 
to  utilize  efficiently  tie  materials  and  forces  of  nature;  and 
such  was  the  conception  of  the  late  Dr.  R.  H.  Thurston, 
who  for  many  years  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  engineering 
thought  in  this  country.  As  first  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  as  Professor  of  Engi- 
neering at  Stevens  Institute,  and  later  as  Director  of  Sibley 
College  —  the  great  engineering  school  of  Cornell  University 
—  he  continually  gave  expression  to  this  idea.  Having  been 
brought  up  in  that  school,  I  cannot  accept  for  myself  the 
title  "Efficiency  Engineer,"  as  it  seems  to  imply  that  there 
are  engineers  who  are  not  striving  for  the  promotion  of 
efficiency. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  61 

The  fact  that,  until  recently,  the  engineer  has  confined  his 
efforts  to  inanimate  forces  and  materials  does  not  seem  to 
me  to  justify  an  extension  of  title  when  he  includes  in  his 
work  the  promotion  of  efficiency  in  the  field  of  human  effort. 
While  my  feeling  on  this  subject  is  very  strong,  it  is  neces- 
sarily only  my  personal  feeling,  and  there  may  be  others  who 
have  a  different  conception  of  the  functions  of  the  engineer. 
Such  people  are,  of  course,  equally  entitled  to  their  own 
opinions  on  this  subject. 

About  fifteen  years  ago,  the  financiers  of  this  country  dis- 
covered a  new  and  seemingly  important  principle.  They 
realized  that,  in  many  cases  at  least,  large  factories  were 
making  a  greater  percentage  of  profit  than  small  ones,  and 
conceived  the  idea  of  uniting  the  small  ones  under  one  system 
of  management.  By  this  move  they  certainly  did  give  the 
small  factories  a  better  financial  standing,  at  the  same  time 
reducing  what  might  be  called  the  financial,  or  business, 
expense. 

By  this  they  also  reduced  competition  and  decreased  the 
cost  of  selling,  which  has  always  been  a  large  element  of 
expense.  Under  those  conditions  business  prospered  rapidly, 
for  there  was  in  many  cases  undoubtedly  a  reduction  in  cost. 
The  illustrated  magazines  were  filled  with  portraits  of  the 
captains  of  industry  who  had  effected  these  combinations, 
and  it  was  freely  predicted  that  the  economies  to  be  obtained 
were  so  great  that  it  would  be  a  question  of  time  only  before 
Europe  would  be  flooded  with  American  goods. 

The  formation  of  consolidations,  or  trusts,  in  manufacturing, 
and  of  great  systems  in  railroading,  went  on  at  a  rapid  rate. 
The  economies  that  were  produced  by  these  methods,  together 
with  the  fact  that  by  the  elimination  of  competition  selling 
prices  were  kept  up,  enabled  many  such  combinations  to 
pay  dividends  on  stock  which  had  originally  represented 
little  or  no  value. 

The  unprecedented  prosperity  which  followed  the  intro- 
duction of  these  methods  was  undoubtedly  caused  in  a  large 
measure  by  them,  and  the  financier  was  justly  regarded  as 


62  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

having  done  much  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  country. 
Our  internal  trade  grew  at  an  astounding  rate,  but  the  Ameri- 
can invasion  of  Europe  did  not  materialize;  and  it  was  not 
very  long  before  we  began  to  hear  complaints  of  the  increasing 
inefficiency  of  labor.  Wages  began  to  rise,  but  the  output 
of  the  workman  did  not  rise  correspondingly.  The  financier 
had  undoubtedly  effected  economies  in  those  parts  of  business 
directly  under  his  control,  but  had  not  succeeded  in  producing 
a  similar  effect  on  those  with  which  he  did  not  come  in  direct 
contact. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  while  the  financier  had  been  forming 
his  great  combinations  of  manufacturing  interests  and  rail- 
roads, with  the  effect,  at  least  as  far  as  the  public  was  con- 
cerned, of  upholding  prices,  the  workmen  had  gone  him  one 
better.  By  their  unions  not  only  have  they  upheld  the  price 
of  their  labor,  but  in  many  cases  markedly  increased  it,  with- 
out rendering  any  more  service  than  formerly;  the  employers, 
in  many  cases,  say  less. 

Under  these  conditions,  the  projected  invasion  of  Europe 
seems  to  have  been  postponed  indefinitely,  and  the  continually 
increasing  cost  of  living  in  this  country  seems  to  indicate  that 
we  need  something  more  than  able  financiering  to  round  out 
our  theory  of  Industrial  Economy.  While  this  fact  is  recog- 
nized by  all,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  specify  exactly  what  is  wrong 
or  how  it  is  to  be  corrected.  Cooperation  among  employers 
to  uphold  the  prices  of  their  products  has  been  so  successful, 
that  it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  workmen  should 
adopt  the  same  tactics. 

On  this  subject,  Adam  Smith,  in  his  famous  book,  An 
Inquiry  into  the  Nature  and  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations, 
nearly  140  years  ago  wrote  as  follows: 

"Our  merchants  and  master-manufacturers  complain  much 
of  the  bad  effects  of  high  wages  in  raising  the  price,  and  thereby 
lessening  the  sale  of  goods  at  home  and  abroad.  They  say 
nothing  concerning  the  bad  effects  of  high  profits.  They  are 
silent  with  regard  to  the  pernicious  effect  of  their  own  gains. 
They  complain  only  of  those  of  other  people." 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  63 

This  statement  made  so  long  ago  is  just  as  applicable  to 
the  conditions  of  today,  and  admonishes  us  in  approaching 
our  problem  to  do  so  with  an  open  mind  and  not  from  a 
partizan  standpoint,  for  a  solution  cannot  be  permanent  if 
it  benefits  one  class  exclusively. 

Relative  to  the  increasing  inefficiency  of  labor,  while  the 
manager  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  inefficiency  he 
finds,  he  certainly  is  responsible  if  he  allows  it  to  increase. 
It  therefore  seems  that  the  problem  before  us  is  one  of 
management,  and  if  the  methods  now  generally  in  vogue  do 
not  accomplish  the  desired  result,  they  must  be  modified; 
and  our  inquiry  must  be  directed  towards  finding  if  possible 
some  indication  as  to  the  form  this  modification  must  take. 

THE  TASK  IDEA.  In  studying  a  problem  it  is  best  to  con- 
sider first  the  simplest  form  in  which  that  problem  presents 
itself,  and  one  if  possible  in  which  the  issues  are  perfectly 
clear  to  all.  A  good  example  for  our  purpose  is  to  study  the 
methods  by  which  a  child  is  taught  to  perform  a  simple  opera- 
tion. The  invariable  method  is  to  explain  to  the  child  as 
clearly  as  possible  what  is  wanted,  and  then  to  set  a  task  for 
it  to  accomplish.  It  may  be  noted  that  the  accomplishment 
of  the  task  is  rendered  much  easier  for  both  the  child  and  the 
parent,  if  a  suitable  reward  is  offered  for  the  proper  perform- 
ance. As  a  matter  of  fact,  setting  tasks  and  rewarding 
performance  is  the  standard  method  of  teaching  and  train- 
ing children.  The  schoolmaster  invariably  sets  tasks,  and, 
while  they  are  not  always  performed  as  well  as  he  wishes,  he 
gets  far  more  done  than  if  he  had  not  set  them.  The  college 
professor  finds  the  task  his  most  effective  instrument  in  get- 
ting work  out  of  his  students,  and,  when  we  in  our  personal 
work  have  something  strenuous  or  disagreeable  to  accomplish, 
it  is  not  infrequently  that  we  utilize  the  same  idea  to  help 
ourselves,  and  it  does  it. 

The  inducement  to  perform  the  task  is  always  some  bene- 
fit or  reward.  It  may  not  always  be  so  immediate  as  the 
lump  of  sugar  the  child  gets,  but  the  work  is  still  done  for 
some  reward,  immediate  or  prospective.  Further,  it  is  a 


64  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

well-acknowledged  fact  that  to  work  at  a  task,  which  we 
recognize  as  being  within  our  power  to  accomplish,  without 
overexerting  ourselves,  is  less  tiring  and  far  more  pleasant 
than  to  work  along  at  the  same  rate  with  no  special  goal 
ahead. 

//  is  simply  the  difference  between  working  with  an  object, 
and  without  one.  The  hunter  who  enjoys  following  the  trail 
of  the  moose,  day  after  day,  through  snow  and  bitter  cold 
weather,  would  find  the  same  traveling  very  disagreeable 
except  for  the  task  he  has  set  himself.  To  the  uninitiated, 
golf  seems  a  very  inane  sort  of  game,  but  its  devotees  work 
at  it  with  tremendous  energy  just  for  the  satisfaction  of 
reducing  their  score  a  few  strokes.  As  they  become  more 
proficient,  they  become  more  enthusiastic,  for,  having  per- 
formed one  task,  there  is  always  one  just  a  little  harder  to 
work  at.  A  consideration  of  this  subject  will  convince  us 
that  in  the  vast  majority  of  people  there  readily  springs  up 
the  desire  to  do  something  specific  if  the  opportunity  offers, 
and  if  an  adequate  reward  can  be  obtained  for  doing  it. 

A  NATURAL  METHOD.  The  idea  of  setting  for  each  worker 
a  task  with  a  bonus  for  its  accomplishment  seems,  then,  to 
be  in  accord  with  human  nature,  and  hence  the  proper  foun- 
dation of  a  system  of  management.  Our  problem,  then,  is  to 
find  out  how  to  set  a  proper  task  and  what  the  reward  should 
be  for  its  accomplishment. 

The  ideal  industrial  community  would  be  one  in  which 
every  member  should  have  his  proper  daily  task  and  receive 
a  corresponding  reward.  Such  a  community  would  represent 
the  condition  of  which  Kipling  says: 

"  We  shall  work  for  an  age  at  a  sitting 
And  never  be  tired  at  all." 

This  is  what  Scientific  Management  in  its  best  develop- 
ment aims  to  accomplish,  for  it  aims  to  assign  to  each,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  a  definite  task  each  day,  and  to 
secure  to  every  individual  such  a  reward  as  will  make  his  task 
not  only  acceptable,  but  agreeable  and  pleasant.  Whatever 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  6$ 

we  do  must  be  in  accord  with  human  nature.  We  cannot 
drive  people;  we  must  go  with  the  current. 

The  greatest  obstacles  to  the  introduction  of  this  method 
have  not  in  the  past  been  the  workmen,  but  the  foremen 
and  others  in  authority.  Those  offering  most  objection 
have,  as  a  rule,  either  not  understood  what  was  being 
done,  or  have  felt  their  inability  to  hold  their  jobs  if  they 
were  asked  to  perform  them  in  accordance  with  the  high 
standards  set.  Frequently,  the  higher  they  are  in  authority 
the  less  they  can  see  that  they  should  have  a  task  set  for  them. 
Such  a  system  bears  hardest  on  those  who  hold  their  jobs  by 
pull  or  blu/,  and  it  is  from  them  that  we  should  expect  the 
greatest  opposition.  In  this  we  are  not  disappointed.  In  fact, 
there  is  only  one  class  that  opposes  us  more  strongly,  and 
that  is  the  class  which  is  using  official  position  for  private 
gain.  Such  people  will  often  commit  serious  crimes  in  an 
attempt  to  prevent  the  exposure  of  their  irregularities,  and 
no  concern  should,  therefore,  undertake  the  installation  of 
these  methods,  unless  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  eliminating 
all  kinds  of  graft  and  special  privileges. 

SCHEDULES  AS  TASKS.  The  task  idea  is  really  so  common 
that  we  do  not  recognize  it.  Every  railroad  schedule  consists 
of  a  series  of  tasks,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  such  articles 
as  sewing  machines,  typewriters  and  locomotives,  the  task 
idea  is  illustrated  by  the  schedules  according  to  which  the 
various  parts  are  started  on  their  way  through  the  different 
departments,  and  day  by  day  make  such  progress  as  will 
bring  them  to  the  erecting  shop  at  the  proper  time  to  be 
incorporated  into  the  finished  machine  without  delay. 

In  the  case  of  locomotives,  in  particular,  the  task  idea  is 
specifically  illustrated  by  the  dates  of  shipment  set,  often 
months  ahead,  which  are  lived  up  to  in  a  very  remarkable 
manner.  When  the  shipping  date  of  a  locomotive  has  been 
set,  there  has  also  been  set  the  time  when  every  piece 
must  start  on  its  course  through  the  shops  to  arrive  at  the 
appointed  time  in  the  erecting  shop.  Inasmuch  as  this  work 
has  been  done  over  and  over  again,  all  the  principal  men  in 


66  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

the  works  know  by  heart  the  schedules  of  all  the  parts  they 
are  concerned  with,  and  what  their  tasks  are. 

Wherever  the  work  is  one  of  general  character,  this  con- 
dition exists,  for  each  foreman,  and  in  many  cases  the  various 
workmen,  soon  learn  the  proper  routes  and  time-schedules  of 
the  parts  they  are  concerned  with. 

The  grand  task  of  shipping  at  a  predetermined  date,  then, 
consists  of  the  sum  of  those  detail  tasks,  each  of  which  must 
be  performed  properly  and  in  the  proper  sequence,  if  the 
shipping  date  is  to  be  lived  up  to. 

SCHEDULING  MISCELLANEOUS  WORK.  Where  the  work  is 
miscellaneous  in  character,  however,  the  task  of  having  each 
part  go  through  the  proper  sequence  of  operations  and  arrive 
at  the  erecting  shop  in  the  order  wanted,  is  not  so  easy.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  the  feeling  of  the  writer  that  the  inability 
to  get  miscellaneous  work  through  a  shop  on  time,  and  the 
delays  caused  thereby,  is  often  the  source  of  as  much  expense 
as  inefficient  work  on  the  part  of  the  operative. 

In  a  small  shop  one  capable  man  can  often  so  plan  miscel- 
laneous work,  and  keep  account  of  it  in  his  head,  that  but 
little  expense  is  incurred  from  delays  or  interferences;  but  in 
the  large  shops  of  today,  and  especially  in  plants  consisting 
of  several  shops,  such  a  thing  is  quite  impossible;  and  the 
larger  the  shop  or  plant  the  greater  the  expense  that  arises 
from  this  source.  This,  then,  is  the  greatest  and  most  im- 
portant task  to  be  performed  in  any  works,  and  it  is  one  for 
which  the  management  is  solely  responsible.  To  go  into 
details  of  how  such  a  task  is  performed  would  be  impossible 
in  the  short  time  at  my  disposal.  Suffice  it  to  say,  however, 
that  when  a  start  has  been  made  and  each  foreman  receives 
each  day  a  list  of  jobs  to  be  done  that  day,  the  general  effi- 
ciency of  the  works  is  much  increased,  though  nothing  what- 
ever has  been  done  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  individual 
workman.  Although  such  an  order  of  work  is  of  great  assist- 
ance to  the  foreman,  its  usefulness  increases  rapidly  as  the 
work  is  so  planned  as  to  avoid  interferences  and  to  have  all 
materials  and  appliances  ready  for  the  workman  in  advance. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  67 

With  this  result  the  efficiency  of  the  individual  increases,  and 
unless  his  inefficiency  is  very  flagrant,  it  is  far  better  to  solve 
this  general  problem  first  and  to  take  up  the  efficiency  of  the 
workman  later,  except  to  the  extent  of  keeping  a  daily  record 
of  his  work;  for  when  the  large  problem  is  solved,  every  step 
made  with  the  individual  counts  for  all  it  is  worth,  which  is 
not  always  the  case  when  work  is  done  in  the  wrong  sequence 
or  by  an  inferior  method. 

What  I  have  said  has  so  often  proved  itself  of  value,  that 
anybody  who  gives  the  subject  any  thought  should  recognize 
the  importance  of  it.  I  had  a  case  a  few  years  ago  where 
there  was  a  very  good  foreman  of  a  certain  shop,  —  I  say 
he  was  good  because  he  intended  to  do  the  right  thing  and  he 
was  bright  and  he  knew  how  to  do  the  work.  But  he  had 
one  failing,  a  very  bad  memory.  He  would  promise  anything 
and  never  perform  it.  It  was  not  because  he  did  not  want 
to  do  it,  —  he  would  always  forget.  He  honestly  forgot. 
And  when  we  gave  him  a  list  of  the  work  in  the  order  in 
which  it  was  wanted,  and  presented  him  each  day  a  list  of 
the  work  he  was  to  do  next,  he  was  perfectly  delighted. 

I  have  had  similar  cases  a  number  of  times,  and  I  have 
always  been  able  in  this  way  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the 
foreman  and  of  the  workmen.  In  one  case  which  I  could  cite, 
I  went  to  a  large  shop  where  I  was  told  that  certain  foremen 
were  useless;  there  was  one  in  particular  whom  they  would 
have  to  get  rid  of.  Well,  we  did  not  discuss  that  question. 
We  found  that  he  was  always  behind  in  his  work,  because  he 
was  always  doing  the  wrong  thing  first.  We  went  to  work 
to  straighten  out  what  he  should  do  and  gave  him  each  day 
a  list  of  the  work  he  was  to  do  that  day.  In  a  short  time 
he  caught  up  with  his  work,  and  some  months  later  he  came 
to  the  superintendent  of  the  shop  and  said,  "There  is  some- 
thing wrong  in  this  shop."  The  superintendent  asked, 
"What  is  the  matter?"  "I  don't  know,"  said  the  foreman; 
"but  there  is  something  wrong  in  this  shop."  "Well,  what 
is  it,  if  it  is  wrong?"  "Well,"  the  foreman  replied,  "nobody 
has  been  chasing  me  about  my  work  for  three  days."  That 


68  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

happened  several  years  ago,  and  the  man  is  still  there  as 
foreman. 

Having  solved  our  large  problem  of  scheduling  each  part 
through  the  works,  and  having  devised  means  for  knowing 
each  day  whether  our  schedules  are  lived  up  to  or  not,  we 
come  to  what  most  people  consider  the  real  problem,  that  of 
setting  up  a  task  for  the  workman. 

I  find  many  shops  have  a  very  nice  schedule  system;  they 
plan  their  work  beautifully,  —  at  least,  it  looks  very  pretty 
on  paper,  but  they  have  no  means  of  finding  out  whether 
those  schedules  are  lived  up  to  or  not.  Usually  they  are  not. 
I  have  been  through  shops  where  the  superintendent  or  man- 
ager told  me  he  had  a  fine  system  of  management,  and  having 
described  his  whole  system  to  me,  turned  me  over  to  a  sub- 
ordinate to  take  me  around  and  see  how  it  was  working.  It 
has  been  very  seldom  when  I  have  found  the  system  working 
the  way  the  superintendent  said  it  was.  He  had  planned  it 
and  had  given  his  orders,  but  when  I  got  out  into  the  shop 
and  asked  questions,  I  found  that  the  foremen  and  the  people 
charged  with  carrying  out  this  system  said,  "We  found  we 
couldn't  do  it  just  that  way  and  we  have  done  it  this  way." 
One  dear  old  man  whom  I  knew  very  well  was  very  proud 
of  his  shop  system.  He  spent  quite  a  time  one  day  showing 
it  to  me,  and  then  turned  me  over  to  one  of  his  subordinates 
to  be  shown  the  details  of  anything  I  wanted  to  see.  There 
was  absolutely  nothing  going  as  he  said  it  was  going.  The 
force  had  not  argued  with  him;  they  had  just  gone  on  and 
done  things  in  their  own  way.  He  had  this  beautiful  sys- 
tem all  on  paper.  It  looked  to  me  pretty  complicated,  but 
he  thought  it  was  fine.  Everybody  was  going  on  just  the 
same  as  before,  and  he  was  ignorant  of  the  fact.  They  never 
brought  it  up  to  him;  they  got  things  out  the  best  way  they 
could,  made  whatever  excuses  were  necessary  and  got  through. 

With  regard  to  the  subject  of  tasks  it  may  be  said  that  it 
is  only  in  those  cases  where  the  number  of  routes  is  small 
and  the  sequence  of  operations  fixed,  that  proper  tasks  can 
be  set  for  the  workman  before  the  solution  of  the  general 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  69 

problem.  I  have  been  working  at  one  plant  for  a  year  and 
a  half  where  they  had  a  pretty  good  system  of  management, 
and  we  have  not  set  a  task  yet.  We  have  been  straightening 
out  their  routes.  We  have  been  fixing  it  so  that  the  work 
should  go  through  the  shop  in  the  order  wanted  and  not  by 
the  snap  judgment  of  some  individual.  As  soon  as  we  have 
got  into  the  various  rooms,  —  in  many  cases  rooms  which 
were  crowded  and  where  work  was  stacked  all  round  the 
room  —  and  begun  to  plan  the  work  so  as  to  have  it  done  in 
proper  sequence  and  without  delay,  congestion  has  disap- 
peared. That  has  happened  in  so  many  cases  that  it  cannot 
be  attributed  to  accident.  In  one  case  which  I  could  cite, 
the  shop  was  filled  with  small  boxes  of  little  pieces  that 
were  in  process.  There  were  a  great  many  of  those  boxes. 
I  said,  "The  first  thing,  gentlemen,  is  to  get  some  racks  made 
and  classify  these  boxes  according  to  the  operation  which  is 
next  to  be  performed  on  the  pieces."  They  saw  they  had  a 
great  many  boxes  there  and  they  built  a  corresponding 
number  of  racks.  When  they  got  this  work  classified  and 
began  to  lay  it  out,  they  found  they  had  many  more  racks 
than  they  needed.  The  work  kept  moving  instead  of 
standing  there. 

I  find  in  many  factories  that  the  amount  of  work  in 
process,  moving  in  a  desultory  way  through  the  factory,  is 
two  or  three  times  as  great  as  there  is  any  necessity  for,  if 
its  course  were  properly  planned.  It  not  only  takes  up  fac- 
tory space,  but  it  ties  up  a  large  amount  of  capital  where 
work  is  not  properly  planned.  The  ordinary  stock-keeper  or 
foreman  always  wants  to  give  himself  about  two  or  three 
times  as  much  time  as  is  needed  to  get  the  work  done.  He 
always  expects  that  when  a  man  promises  to  give  him  some- 
thing next  Monday,  it  will  be  Monday  week  or  Monday  two 
weeks  before  he  will  get  it.  And  that  is  true  if  the  planning 
of  that  work  is  left  to  a  series  of  foremen.  There  are  many 
reasons  why  that  has  to  be  so.  It  is  impracticable  to  do  it 
in  any  other  way.  If,  however,  all  that  planning  is  done 
from  one  central  headquarters,  and  each  man  knows  how 


70  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

much  he  has  to  accomplish,  and  it  is  put  up  to  him  in  such 
a  way  that  he  can  accomplish  it,  it  gets  through  pretty 
regularly. 

To  send  a  clerk  into  a  shop  to  time  workmen  with  a  stop- 
watch and  set  rates,  or  tasks,  naturally  arouses  the  opposition 
of  the  workmen;  and  while  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  has  been 
possible  in  many  cases  to  get  more  work  by  so  doing,  I  have 
no  doubt,  also,  that  its  effect  on  the  industrial  conditions  of 
the  country  at  large  has  been  decidedly  detrimental.  It 
creates  opposition,  and  justly. 

As  I  said  before,  working  at  tasks  is  not  a  hardship,  but  a 
pleasure,  if  they  are  properly  set  and  adequately  rewarded. 
Before  task-setting  can  be  carried  on  satisfactorily,  the  work- 
men must  be  convinced  that  we  are  not  approaching  them 
with  a  scheme  for  driving,  but  with  one  by  which  they  will 
be  benefited.  They  must  be  satisfied,  too,  that  the  man  who 
is  going  to  study  their  work  knows  what  he  is  doing.  He 
should  not  be  a  clerk  picked  up  at  random  and  given  a  stop- 
watch; he  should  be  a  man  who  knows  what  the  problem  is 
and  how  to  solve  it. 

PREPARATION  FOR  TASK-SETTING.  Among  the  steps  to  be 
taken  before  setting  a  task  are ;  to  get  all  machines  and  appli- 
ances in  proper  order,  to  establish  a  proper  tool-room  where 
suitable  tools  can  be  obtained  for  work,  to  arrange  to  supply 
the  workmen  with  material  in  the  order  wanted,  to  plan  work 
so  that  it  is  very  seldom  that  one  job  shall  be  stopped  to  make 
way  for  another.  In  other  words,  before  we  begin  the  prob- 
lem of  task-setting  for  the  individual,  we  should  arrange  con- 
ditions so  that  he  can  work  to  the  best  advantage,  with  proper 
ventilation  and  a  comfortable  temperature.  These  condi- 
tions alone  will  materially  increase  his  output,  for  petty 
annoyance  of  any  kind  reduces  his  efficiency.  If  the  work 
requires  mechanical  skill  or  ability,  the  problem  should  be 
studied  by  the  most  capable  mechanic  available,  and  specific 
instructions  set,  showing  the  best  way  to  do  the  work  and  the 
time  required  to  do  it.  If  necessary,  and  it  usually  is,  the 
investigator  and  task-setter  should  now  turn  instructor  and 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  71 

show  the  workmen  how  to  do  the  work,  and  the  task  should 
be  such  that  a  good  workman  can  readily  learn  to  perform 
it.  If  the  task  is  set  in  this  manner  by  a  man  in  whose 
ability  and  honesty  the  workman  has  confidence,  I  have  but 
little  difficulty  getting  the  task-work  started,  provided  a 
proper  bonus  is  offered. 

This  leads  to  the  question,  What  is  a  proper  bonus?  The 
reply  is,  that  it  is  such  a  bonus  as  will  make  the  workman  feel 
that  he  is  fully  compensated  for  any  extra  exertion  he  puts 
forth. 

Judged  from  this  point  of  view,  it  is  evident  that  the  bonus 
depends  upon  the  severity  of  the  work.  It  varies,  as  a  rule, 
from  20  per  cent  to  50  per  cent  of  the  day-rate.  Task-work 
does  not  necessarily  mean  more  severe  work,  but  it  does 
mean  more  continuous  work,  and  work  under  more  favorable 
conditions,  which  always  produces  greater  efficiency. 

The  attempt  to  set  a  task  so  severe  that  very  few  people 
can  be  taught  to  perform  it,  is  of  no  advantage  from  any 
standpoint,  for  few  will  continue  to  strive  for  a  reward  which 
they  cannot  reach.  I  have  seen  employers  who  were  much 
surprised  that  they  did  not  get  an  increased  output  where 
they  had  set  a  reward  for  it,  —  surprised  that  the  reward  was 
being  earned  by  one  or  two  only  out  of  fifty  or  sixty.  When 
a  workman  has  made  up  his  mind  that  the  reward  is  beyond 
him,  it  has  no  effect. 

PERFORMING  THE  TASKS.  Having  set  a  task,  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  performance  does  not  rest  upon  the  workman 
alone,  but  must  be  shared  by  the  instructor,  who  must  see 
that  the  conditions  under  which  the  task  was  set  are  main- 
tained. That  is  an  essential  difference  between  our  form  of 
work  and  the  ordinary  form  of  piece-work.  The  ordinary 
form  of  piece-work  is  to  fix  a  piece-rate,  and  then  let  anybody 
do  it,  if  he  can;  if  he  cannot,  he  gets  out.  We  believe  that 
it  is  our  duty  to  show  the  man  how  to  do  it,  and  to  do  what- 
ever we  can  to  help  him  perform  his  task.  To  complete  the 
scheme,  therefore,  every  case  of  lost  bonus  must  be  investi- 
gated and  the  reason  determined.  Such  investigations,  when 


72  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

the  case  is  that  of  a  man  who  has  learned  the  work,  usually 
lead  to  the  discovery  of  slightly  defective  material,  imperfect 
tools,  machine  out  of  order,  or  any  one  of  a  large  number  of 
things  that  might  hamper  the  output  considerably,  but  which 
would  not  be  noticed  unless  a  special  search  was  made  for 
them.  Thus,  the  setting  of  a  proper  task  for  a  workman  also 
imposes  obligations  on,  or  sets  tasks  for,  the  management,  with 
the  invariable  result  of  a  better  and  cheaper  product. 

TASK-WORK  IN  A  MACHINE  SHOP.  The  setting  of  machine- 
shop  tasks  is  today  quite  different  from  what  it  was  ten  years 
ago.  At  that  time  machine  operations  took  a  relatively  long 
time,  and  the  time  between  operations  was  of  much  less 
importance.  Today,  when  machine  operations  are,  as  a 
rule,  three  times  as  fast,  the  time  of  changing  jobs  has  become 
three  times  as  important,  and  to  plan  our  work  so  that  there 
will  be  no  time  lost  in  going  from  one  job  to  another  has 
become  a  far  greater  factor.  For  each  machine-tool  operative 
today,  there  has  to  be  planned  nearly  three  times  as  much 
work  as  formerly,  and  necessarily  the  supervising  force 
must  be  much  greater.  It  is  this  increase  in  machine-tool 
capacity  which  has  induced  me  to  lay  emphasis  on  the  general 
scheduling  of  work,  so  that  no  more  time  than  necessary 
shall  be  taken  in  changing  jobs. 

The  ratio  between  the  number  of  men  actually  engaged  on 
mechanical  work  and  those  engaged  in  supervising  or  prepar- 
ing work  must  necessarily  be  quite  different  from  what  it 
was  before  the  advent  of  high-speed  steel  and  methods  of 
instruction  and  task-setting. 

Task-setting  in  every  kind  of  shop  is  similar,  and  although 
we  do  not  have  high-speed  steel  to  reduce  time  in  non-metal- 
working  shops,  we  have,  in  many  cases,  something  similar, 
the  benefit  of  which  is  never  fully  realized  until  a  proper  and 
detailed  study  is  made  of  the  possibilities. 

I  could  give  numerous  illustrations  of  this.  For  instance, 
in  the  bleaching  of  cloth  there  are  several  processes,  one  of 
which  is  to  subject  the  cloth  to  the  action  of  an  acid.  I  found 
a  variety  of  opinion  in  the  plant  in  which  I  first  worked,  as 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  73 

to  how  long  the  cloth  should  be  subjected  to  this  treatment. 
They  told  me  that  they  thought  an  hour  was  necessary.  By 
watching  their  performances,  I  found  that,  while  the  man  who 
told  me  that  an  hour  was  necessary  usually  subjected  his  cloth 
to  the  action  of  the  acid  for  an  hour,  he  sometimes  allowed 
it  to  stay  in  the  acid  for  several  hours  and  sometimes  only 
five  minutes.  That,  of  course,  opened  a  field  for  investigation. 
He  also  told  me  how  strong  the  acid  should  be,  and  insisted 
that  he  always  kept  it  at  that  strength.  We  secured  samples 
of  his  solution  at  different  times  and  found  that  the  strength 
varied  from  about  i  per  cent  to  7  per  cent.  That  also  opened 
up  a  line  of  study.  We  found  but  little  difference  between 
cloth  which  had  been  acted  upon  five  minutes  and  that  which 
had  been  acted  upon  for  an  hour.  As  a  result  of  our  studies, 
we  found  the  strength  of  acid  needed  and  the  time  the  cloth 
should  remain  subjected  to  it.  It  had  been  the  practice  to 
pile  the  cloth  in  a  series  of  piles,  and  when  it  had  remained 
long  enough  in  these  piles,  to  sew  the  cloth  together  again 
and  to  pull  it  through  the  subsequent  solutions.  This 
method  necessitated  the  sewing  of  the  top  of  the  second  pile 
to  the  bottom  of  the  first.  As  this  process  was  usually 
repeated  several  times  in  the  bleaching,  it  is  easily  seen  that 
the  pieces  of  cloth  naturally  became  pretty  thoroughly 
"  shuffled  "  by  the  time  the  bleaching  was  completed.  If  the 
rope  contained  several  kinds  of  goods,  as  was  usually  the  case, 
the  kinds  were  often  so  thoroughly  mixed  that  they  could  not 
be  gathered  together  again,  except  with  much  care  and  labor. 
The  result  was  that  people  frequently  did  not  get  all  of  the 
goods  that  they  sent  to  the  bleachery,  but  they  got  somebody's 
else,  which  was  sometimes  as  good,  and  sometimes  not.  ' 

The  discovery  that  those  goods  could  be  treated  in  a  few 
minutes  enabled  us  to  make  a  remarkable  change  in  the  work 
and  eliminate  a  great  deal  of  labor,  besides  keeping  all  the 
goods  in  exactly  the  order  they  went  in.  We  devised  a 
machine  which  automatically  turns  upward  the  leading  end 
of  a  pile  of  goods  formed  in  it.  From  this  leading  end  the 
goods  are  pulled  off  at  exactly  the  same  speed  at  which  they 


74  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

are  added  to  the  pile.  Thus  all  goods  remain  in  the  pile 
exactly  the  same  length  of  time  and  are  treated  exactly 
alike,  with  the  result  of  a  uniformity  of  bleach  previously 
impossible  of  attainment. 

The  length  of  time  the  goods  remain  in  the  pile  is  gov- 
erned by  the  desire  of  the  bleacher  and  is  limited  by  the 
size  of  the  machine.  Several  machines  may  be  placed  in 
series  if  it  is  desired  to  have  the  time  very  long. 

By  means  of  this  machine  it  has  been  possible  to  bleach  a 
number  of  small  lots  of  different  kinds  of  cloth  together,  yet 
to  keep  each  lot  intact,  and  to  deliver  to  the  finisher  goods 
so  uniform  that  he  can  feel  sure  that  like  treatment  will 
produce  like  results.  He  is  thus  able  to  mix  his  starch 
according  to  his  formula  and  be  sure  of  his  result. 

This  one  thing  has  had  just  as  much  influence  on  that 
industry  as  improved  tool-steel  has  had  on  the  machine-shop 
industry.  I  say  it  has  had,  —  it  will  have,  when  it  is  ex- 
tended to  the  degree  to  which  it  will  ultimately  be  extended. 
The  development  is  proceeding  and  it  is  being  gradually 
extended  throughout  the  country. 

I  give  that  just  as  an  illustration  of  what  I  mean  when  I 
say  that,  in  a  non-metal-working  industry,  there  is  nearly 
always  something  in  which  improvement  can  be  made,  just 
as  improvement  has  been  made  in  the  metal-working  industry 
by  high-speed  tool-steel. 

We  have  found  that  if  work  is  properly  planned,  so  that 
unnecessary  delays  do  not  occur  and  the  workmen  are  pro- 
vided with  proper  implements  to  enable  them  to  perform  their 
tasks  in  the  best  manner  we  can  devise,  they  can,  as  a  rule, 
wherever  the  amount  of  work  done  depends  upon  physical 
exertion,  do  an  average  of  three  times  as  much  as  they  did 
on  day-work,  before  planning  and  task-setting  were  begun, 
and  feel  no  more  tired  at  night. 

MAINTAINING  PROPER  CONDITIONS.  While  the  setting  of 
tasks  under  the  proper  conditions  and  in  the  proper  spirit, 
accompanied  by  a  suitable  reward  for  accomplishment,  is  of 
great  advantage,  it  is  essential  that  the  conditions  under  which 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  75 

the  tasks  have  been  set  should  be  maintained  permanently. 
Failure  to  maintain  these  conditions  will  work  hardship  on 
the  workman  and  will  make  it  impossible  many  times  for  him 
to  perform  his  task.  No  one  should,  therefore,  undertake 
the  introduction  of  task-work,  unless  he  is  prepared  to 
maintain  the  conditions  of  his  shop  at  a  high  standard; 
otherwise  dissatisfaction  is  sure  to  spring  up. 

The  sum  of  the  tasks  which  can  be  performed  by  the  indi- 
viduals of  the  shop  is  the  shop-task,  and  the  sum  of  the  tasks 
of  the  shops  the  factory-task.  Every  foreman  who  can  suc- 
ceed in  the  accomplishment  of  his  shop- task  should  be  properly 
rewarded.  In  such  a  scheme  as  this  the  foreman  and  the 
workmen  are  brought  together  by  mutual  interest,  and  there 
develops  a  spirit  of  cooperation.  Under  such  a  scheme  as 
this,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  there  will  be  a  decided 
increase  in  profits. 

Having  satisfied  ourselves  that  these  methods,  if  properly 
applied,  will  result  in  an  increased  production  of  wealth,  we 
must,  before  passing  final  judgment  on  the  scheme,  ask  what 
effect  this  increase  in  wealth  will  have  on  the  industrial 
conditions  of  the  country. 

EFFECT  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  ON  GENERAL  PROS- 
PERITY. General  prosperity  is  not  promoted  by  the  accu- 
mulation of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  one  class,  but  by  the 
interchange,  or  distribution,  of  commodities. 

Unless,  therefore,  these  methods  help  the  distribution,  the 
community  will  be  but  slightly  benefited;  individual  con- 
cerns will  undoubtedly  be  largely  benefited  at  first,  but  it 
is  doubtful  if  this  benefit  will  continue  unless  the  public  at 
large  is  also  benefited.  I  emphasize  this  point,  because  I 
have  had  so  many  letters  from  people  who  looked  upon  Sci- 
entific Management  as  a  new  instrument  by  which  they  could 
squeeze  a  little  more  out  of  the  workman  and  give  him  no 
more  in  return.  I  have  no  time  for  those  people,  and  I  do 
not  want  to  have  anything  to  do  with  them.  We  must 
share  what  we  get. 

Adam  Smith  told  us,  over  a  century  ago,  that  prosperity 


76  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

is  greatest  when  the  percentage  of  profits  is  small,  and 
business,  or  interchange,  large.  We  also  know  this  to  be  a 
fact,  and  unless  some  of  the  economies  of  these  methods  are 
shared  with  the  public  in  the  shape  of  reduced  selling  price, 
thus  making  possible  an  increase  of  business,  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  if  these  methods  will  permanently  improve  our 
industrial  conditions. 

The  average  producer  has  already  done  much  to  reduce 
costs,  especially  during  the  last  few  years,  and  the  methods 
outlined  promise  a  reduction  that  will  be  still  more  marked; 
but  until  the  financier  and  the  selling  agencies  (by  selling 
agencies,  I  mean  all  the  middlemen)  cease  to  violate  the  funda- 
mental law  of  economics,  that  small  profits  make  good  business, 
the  work  of  the  producer  in  reducing  costs  will  not  help 
business  very  much. 

High  cost  of  living  all  over  the  civilized  world  today  is  not 
so  much  the  result  of  high  wages  as  of  high  profits.  High 
profits  reduce  business,  and  small  business,  by  limiting  the 
demand,  enables  factories  to  turn  out  only  a  small  product, 
the  cost  of  which  is  necessarily  increased.  With  regard  to 
that,  I  might  say  that  a  man,  for  whom  I  had  done  some  work, 
came  to  me  during  a  business  depression  and  said,  "I  am  run- 
ning my  factory  only  half-full.  If  I  ran  it  full,  I  could  afford 
to  sell  my  product  at  a  very  much  lower  price,  and  still  make 
money."  I  said,  "I  am  very  much  pleased  to  hear  that; 
the  cost-system  I  put  in  is  worth  something  to  you,  if  it 
has  shown  you  that."  He  said,  "Yes."  I  said,  "What  are 
you  going  to  do  about  it?"  "Well,"  he  said,  "I  think  I  shall 
run  my  factory  full;  I  can  afford  to  do  it.  I  am  going  to 
reduce  my  selling  price  until  I  can  fill  my  factory."  He  had 
got  out  of  the  idea  of  limiting  production.  There  had  been  a 
"gentlemen's  agreement"  among  his  competitors  about  price, 
—  they  were  not  going  any  lower  than  they  had  to  go;  but 
he  found  that  he  could  make  a  great  deal  more  profit  by 
reducing  his  selling  price  and  filling  his  factory.  Unquestion- 
ably, the  demand  for  those  goods  will  increase  with  the  de- 
creased selling  price,  and  his  competitors  will  probably  keep 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  77 

busy,  too,  if  they  are  willing  to  come  down  to  the  same  price. 
We  have  in  this  country  all  the  elements  needed  to  produce 
the  present  conditions  of  small  business  and  high  cost  of 
living;  and  they  are  all  based  on  the  one  economic  fact 
which  the  financier  has  absolutely  ignored,  namely,  that  large 
profits  always  tend  to  diminish  business. 

I  believe  that  this  principle  should  be  most  carefully  con- 
sidered by  students  of  economics,  and  that  it  is  of  far  more 
importance  than  details  to  the  public  in  general. 

SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  AND  LABOR-SAVING  MACHINES. 
Scientific  Management  has  been  likened  to  labor-saving 
machinery,  and  the  parallel  is  very  close.  In  adopting  it, 
however,  we  should  recognize  our  obligations  as  well  as 
privileges,  and  build  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the 
present. 

Labor-saving  machiney  has  greatly  increased  wealth  and 
improved  the  conditions  of  civilized  man,  but  with  the  in- 
crease of  wealth  has  come  greater  relative  differences  between 
rich  and  poor,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  relations  between 
employer  and  employee  are  any  better  today  than  they  were 
two  centuries  ago. 

During  the  time  of  such  an  increase  of  wealth  many  indus- 
trial problems  should  have  been  solved,  but  were  not,  largely 
because  an  economic  law  was  ignored.  In  the  utilization  of 
this  new  instrument,  it  will  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  com- 
munity if  the  laws  of  distribution  are  studied  along  with  those 
of  production. 

In  considering  the  parallel  between  Scientific  Management 
and  labor-saving  machinery,  we  may  note  that  properly 
designed  and  operated  labor-saving  machinery,  when  applied 
to  a  suitable  purpose,  has  produced  great  economies,  and 
assisted  materially  in  the  production  of  wealth;  but  when 
improperly  designed,  or  improperly  operated,  has  often  been 
a  source  of  great  expense.  We  may  expect  similar  results 
with  what  is  called  Scientific  Management. 

The  high-sounding  term  Scientific  Management  should  not 
be  allowed  to  mislead  anybody.  It  is  not  something  that 


78  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

can  be  bought  wholesale  and  utilized  retail,  but  simply  means : 
study  your  problem  according  to  scientific  methods,  eliminat- 
ing guess,  setting  each  man  a  proper  task,  and  allowing  suit- 
able rewards  for  the  accomplishment  of  these  tasks.  This 
done,  increased  efficiency  is  bound  to  follow. 

In  setting  &  task,  emphasis  should  be  put  upon  the  elimina- 
tion of  guess,  for  there  is  no  surer  way  to  induce  dissatisfac- 
tion or  inefficiency  than  to  change  a  task  or  a  piece-rate  which 
has  been  accepted  in  good  faith.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
the  workmen  realize  that  tasks  once  set  will  not  be  changed, 
and  that  they  are  set  in  an  equitable  manner,  they  not  only 
do  not  object  to  the  setting  of  tasks,  but  they  do  everything 
they  can  to  help  along  the  work. 

If  a  proper  scheme  of  management  is  devised,  by  which  all 
the  available  knowledge  is  used  to  plan  all  work,  and  where 
tasks  are  set  in  accordance  with  the  best  knowledge  we  have, 
and  workmen  are  liberally  compensated  for  the  performance 
of  these  tasks,  it  is  without  question  that  marked  economies 
will  be  effected. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  great  advantage  to  be  obtained 
by  this  new  instrument  leads  employers  to  adopt  ill-designed 
schemes  of  management,  or  to  operate  even  good  ones  in  a 
poor  manner,  it  is  readily  conceivable  that  by  so  doing  they 
may  not  be  gainers,  but  serious  losers.  . 

As  an  indication  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  Scientific 
Management  and  the  Task  and  Bonus  system,  I  quote  from 
a  book  called  Making  Both  Ends  Meet,  published  by  the 
Macrnillan  Company.  This  book  was  written  by  Mrs.  Sue 
Ainslie  Clark  and  Miss  Edith  Wyatt,  who  are  making  a  study 
of  the  work  of  self-supporting  women. 

Last  winter,  when  there  was  so  much  advertisement  given 
to  the  subject  of  Scientific  Management,  Miss  Wyatt  wished 
to  make  an  investigation  of  the  effect  of  these  methods  on 
working  women,  and  visited  three  plants  where  the  writer 
had  installed,  in  a  measure  at  least,  the  principles  referred  to 
in  this  article.  Two  of  these  plants  were  bleacheries  and  one 
a  cotton  mill. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  79 

I  quote  the  following  concerning  the  work  at  the  first 
bleachery  —  a  large  concern  in  New  England. 

"The  first  process  at  which  women  are  employed  is  that  of 
keeping  cloth  running  evenly  through  a  tentering  machine.  .  .  . 
The  tentering  machines  used  to  run  slowly.  This  slowness 
enhanced  the  natural  monotony  and  wearisomeness  of  the 
work.  The  girls  used  to  receive  wages  of  $6  a  week,  and  to 
rest  three-quarters  of  an  hour  in  the  morning  and  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  in  the  afternoon,  with  the  same  period 
for  dinner  at  noon  in  the  middle  of  a  ten-and-one-half-hour 
day.  After  Scientific  Management  was  introduced,  the  girls 
sat  at  the  machine  only  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes  at  a  time. 
Then  they  had  a  twenty-minute  rest  and  these  intervals  of 
work  and  rest  were  continued  throughout  the  day  by  an 
arrangement  of  spelling  with  l  spare  hands/  The  machines 
were  run  at  a  more  rapid  rate  than  before.  The  girl's  task 
was  set  at  watching  32,000  yards  in  a  day;  and  if  she  achieved 
the  bonus,  as  she  did  without  any  difficulty,  she  could  earn  $9 
a  week.  The  output  of  the  tentering  machines  was  increased 
about  sixty  per  cent. 

"The  girls  at  the  tentering  machines  praised  the  bonus 
system  eagerly.  They  said  they  could  not  bear  to  return  to 
the  former  method  of  work;  that  now  the  work  was  easier  and 
more  interesting  than  before,  and  the  payment  and  the  hours 
were  better.  One  of  the  l  spare  hands1  showed  me,  as  a  me- 
mento of  a  new  era  of  tenter-hooking  machines,  the  written 
slip  of  paper  the  efficiency  engineer  had  given  to  her,  explain- 
ing to  her  how  to  arrange  the  intervals  of  rest  and  to  start  the 
'  rest '  with  a  different  girl  on  each  Saturday  —  a  five-hour 
day  —  so  that  the  same  girls  would  not  have  three  intervals 
of  rest  every  Saturday." 

After  the  present  writer  left  the  works,  the  system  was 
introduced  into  another  part  of  the  factory,  but  in  a  modified 
form.  Miss  Wyatt's  comment  on  this  is  as  follows : 

"But  in  another  part  of  the  factory,  the  girls  at  the  tenter- 
ing machines  had  wished  to  lump  their  rest  intervals  and  to 
take  them  all  together  in  fifty-minute  periods  in  the  middle 


8o  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

of  the  morning  and  of  the  afternoon.  Here  the  '  spare  hands ' 
intervals  at  the  machines  fell  awkwardly,  and  they  were  obliged 
to  work  for  an  unduly  long  time.  The  girls  became  exhausted 
with  the  monotony  in  these  longer  stretches  of  work;  and 
further  wearied  themselves  by  embroidering  and  sewing  on 
fancy  work  in  the  long  rest  periods.  Here  the  girls  were  much 
less  contented  than  in  the  other  department." 

"Before  the  introduction  of  the  bonus  system,  one  girl  used 
to  fold,  inspect,  and  ticket.  She  used  also  to  carry  her  material 
from  a  table  near  the  yarding  machine.  Boys  now  bring  the 
material  except  where  at  the  yarding  machines  for  heavier 
stuffs  it  is  pushed  along  the  table.  The  hours,  as  for  almost 
all  of  the  bonus  workers,  have  been  shortened  by  45  minutes. 
The  wages  which  were  $7.50  a  week  are  now  between  $10 
and  $11  on  full  time.  Almost  all  the  workers  here  said  they 
greatly  preferred  the  bonus  system  and  would  greatly  dislike 
to  return  to  other  work." 

"In  the  further  processes  of  folding,  some  of  the  work  and 
the  lifting  to  the  piles  of  the  sheer,  book-folded  stuff  is  light, 
but  requires  great  deftness;  other  parts  of  the  work  and  the 
lifting  to  the  piles  are  heavier.  The  wages  before  the  bonus 
was  introduced  was  $7.50  a  week,  and  with  the  bonus 
rose  to  $11  a  week,  in  full  time.  As  with  the  inspectors,  the 
work  was  now  brought  to  the  folders,  and  the  hours  were 
shortened  by  45  minutes.  Here  there  was  great  variation  in 
the  account  of  the  system. 

"One  of  the  folders  on  light  work,  a  wonderfully  skilful 
young  woman,  who  folded  155  pieces  a  day  before,  and  now 
folded  887,  could  run  far  beyond  her  task  without  exhaustion 
and  earn  as  much  as  $15  a  week.  She  and  some  of  the  ex- 
pert workers  paused  in  the  middle  of  the  morning  for  10  or 
15  minutes'  rest  and  ate  some  fruit  or  other  light  refresh- 
ment, and  sometimes  took  another  such  rest  in  the  afternoon. 

"Another  strong  worker,  employed  on  heavy  material, 
though  she  liked  the  bonus  system,  and  said,  'it  couldn't  be 
better/  had  remained  at  work  at  about  the  same  wages  as 
before,  because  .  .  .  there  was  hardly  more  than  enough  of 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  81 

her  kind  of  work  to  occupy  her  for  more  than  four  days  a 
week.     She  still  earned  about  $8." 

"In  the  last  process  of  stamping  tickets  and  ticketing,  the 
girls  work  without  one  superfluous  motion,  with  a  deftness 
very  attractive  to  see;  and  both  here  and  at  book  folding 
justify  the  claim  made  by  Scientific  Management  that  speed 
is  a  function  of  quality." 

With  regard  to  the  cotton  mill,  the  following  statements 
may  be  quoted: 

"By  and  large,  the  wages  of  the  women  workers  in  the 
cotton  mill  had  been  increased  by  Scientific  Management." 

"Concerning  the  health  and  conservation  of  the  strength 
of  the  women  workers  in  the  mill  under  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, the  task  of  the  speeders  and  of  the  women  at  cloth  inspec- 
tion tired  the  girls  no  more  than  it  had  before.  In  the  spool 
tending  and  the  winding,  as  the  two  most  exhausting  opera- 
tions in  each  process,  the  stooping  and  the  stamping  of  the 
pedals,  had  been  increased  by  the  heightened  task,  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  workers  was  heightened.  But  the  work  of 
the  excitable  little  spool  tender  mentioned  was  finally  arranged 
so  as  to  leave  her  in  better  health  than  in  the  days  when  she 
was  employed  on  piece-work,  and  the  management  was  now 
endeavoring  to  eliminate  the  stooping  at  the  bobbins.  At 
spinning  almost  all  the  spinners  found  the  work  easier  than 
before,  probably  because  Scientific  Management  demands  that 
machine  supervision  and  assistance  shall  be  the  best  possible. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  adjustment  of  the  conditions 
in  the  mill  here  is  comparatively  new.  Almost  all  the  girls  said : 
'They  don't  drive  you  at  the  mill.  They  make  it  as  easy  for 
you  as  they  can.'  It  was  of  special  value  to  observe  the 
operation  of  Scientific  Management  in  an  establishment  where 
all  the  industrial  conditions  are  difficult  for  women.  .  .  .  The 
best  omen  for  the  conservation  of  the  health  of  the  women 
workers  under  Scientific  Management  in  the  cotton  mill  was 
the  equity  and  candor  shown  by  the  management  in  facing 
situations  unfavorable  for  the  women  workers'  health  and 
their  sincere  intention  of  the  best  practicable  readjustments." 


82  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

In  the  second  bleachery  about  twelve  girls  only  were  work- 
ing on  this  system,  and  they  were  all  employed  in  folding  and 
wrapping  cloth. 

"The  arrangement  of  the  different  processes  was  so  differ- 
ent for  each  worker,  after  and  before  the  system  was  installed, 
that  none  of  the  girls  could  compare  the  different  amounts  of 
work  she  completed  at  the  different  times.  But  the  whole 
output,  partly  through  a  better  routing  of  the  work  to  the 
tables,  and  by  paying  the  boys  who  brought  it  a  bonus  of 
5  cents  for  each  worker  who  made  her  bonus,  was  increased 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent.1 

"  The  girls'  hours  were  decreased  from  loj  a  day,  with  fre- 
quent overtime  up  to  nine  at  night,  to  9}  a  day  with  no  over- 
time, the  Saturday  half-holiday  remaining  unchanged." 

"  The  whole  tendency  of  Scientific  Management  towards 
truth  about  industry,  toward  justice,  toward  a  clear  personal 
record  of  work,  established  without  fear  or  favor,  had  inspired 
something  really  new  and  revolutionary  in  the  minds  of  both 
the  managers  and  the  women  workers  where  the  system  had 
been  inaugurated.  Nearly  all  of  them  wished  to  tell  and 
obtain,  as  far  as  they  could,  the  actual  truth  about  the 
experiment  everywhere.  Almost  no  one  wished  to  'make 
out  a  case/  This  expressed  sense  of  candor  and  coopera- 
tion on  both  sides  seemed  to  the  present  writer  more 
stirring  and  vital  than  the  gains  in  wages  and  hours,  far 
more  serious  even  than  the  occasional  strain  on  health 
which  the  imperfect  installation  of  Scientific  Management 
had  sometimes  caused." 

"  No  finer  dream  was  ever  dreamed  than  that  the  industry 
by  which  the  nation  lives  should  be  so  managed  as  to  secure 
for  the  men  and  women  engaged  in  it  their  real  prosperity, 
their  best  use  of  their  highest  powers.  By  and  large,  the  great 
task  of  common  daily  work  our  country  does  today  is  surely 
not  so  managed,  either  by  intent  or  by  result,  either  for  the 

1  It  was  probably  considerably  more  than  that.  The  methods  of  doing 
business  before  and  after  the  installation  of  the  system  were  so  different  that 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  a  measure. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  83 

workers  or  for  the  most  'successful'  owners  of  dividends. 
How  far  Scientific  Management  will  go  towards  realizing 
its  magnificent  dream  in  the  future  will  be  determined 
by  the  greatness  of  spirit  and  the  executive  genius  with 
which  its  principles  are  sustained  by  all  the  people 
interested  in  its  inauguration,  the  employers,  the  workers, 
and  the  engineers." 

THE  CHAIRMAN: 

IT  should  be  the  object  of  every  manager  and  owner  to 
give  the  employee  a  just  and  reasonable  compensa- 
tion for  his  labor,  and  to  secure  a  like  return  on  the 
capital  invested,  under  all  conditions  of  a  fluctuating  market. 
In  times  of  stress  of  business,  when  the  balance  sheet  runs 
badly  and  a  spirit  of  disquietude  pervades  the  industrial  and 
financial  centers,  the  employer  faces  his  gravest  responsibilities 
as  between  .the  care  of  the  employee  and  the  reasonable  pro- 
tection of  his  balance  sheet.  But  the  responsibilities  do  not 
rest  with  the  employers  only;  labor  must  recognize  its  share; 
the  opportunities  and  the  responsibilities  are  mutual.  The 
laborer  should  recognize  that  his  interests  are  identical 
with  those  of  the  employer,  and  should  cooperate  to  secure 
the  most  efficient  application  of  energy.  In  the  long 
run  wages  depend  upon  productivity.  The  detection  and 
elimination  of  false  effort  should  be  the  prime  object  of 
Scientific  Management.  Success  is  not  measured  by  the 
amount  of  energy  we  expend,  but  by  the  results  produced 
by  that  energy.  The  principle  we  are  considering  is  that  of 
so  applying  the  efforts  of  the  employee  that  he  shall  produce 
the  greatest  results  with  the  minimum  of  exertion. 

I  am  sure  we  shoud  like  to  hear  of  the  opportunity  for 
efficiency  and  advancement  which  this  system  offers  to  the 
employee.  We  are  fortunate  to  have  with  us,  to  present 
this  phase  of  the  subject,  a  gentleman  .who  was  one  of  the 
first  to  become  prominent  in  the  field  of  industrial  organi- 
zation. It  pleases  me  to  present  Mr.  Harrington  Emerson, 
of  New  York  City. 


84  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


THE  OPPORTUNITY  OF   LABOR   UNDER  SCIENTIFIC 
MANAGEMENT 

BY  HARRINGTON  EMERSON 
The  Emerson  Company,  New  York 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

IT  was  my  great  good  fortune  to  meet  Mr.  Taylor 
about  ten  years  ago.  We  have  never  worked  together. 
We  came  into  this  work  along  different  lines.  I  have 
been  fortunate  in  hearing  him  speak  a  number  of  times  since, 
and  I  have  had  a  number  of  instructive  personal  conferences 
with  him.  One  of  the  things  that  most  strikes  me  is  how 
identical  our  experiences  have  been,  and  how,  along  dif- 
ferent paths,  we  have  come  to  the  same  conclusions,  using 
sometimes  different  words  to  describe  the  same  thing,  but 
oftentimes  even  into  minute  methods  following  the  same 
procedure. 

It  has  been  perhaps  my  good  luck  or  my  misfortune,  as  you 
may  view  it,  to  be  obliged  to  do  the  big  thing  quickly  rather 
than  slowly.  Occasionally  that  is  necessary.  A  man  may 
take  a  long  time,  as  long  a  time  as  he  chooses,  to  calculate 
an  eclipse,  but  if  he  is  on  a  battleship,  he  has  to  aim  and  fire 
the  gun  at  the  enemy  with  great  rapidity.  And  probably 
the  highest  example  of  Scientific  Management  and  efficiency 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen  is  to  be  found  on  an  American 
battleship,  when  in  thirty  seconds  time  they  determine  the 
distance  of  the  enemy's  ship,  and  from  the  floating,  heaving 
support  are  able  to  hit  the  heaving  target  in  the  center  once 
in  thirty  seconds. 

For  thirty  years  the  railroads  have  had  trouble  with  their 
shop  employees.  There  were  the  Altoona  riots  of  1877,  when 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  had  to  pay  several  million  dollars 
damage  to  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  on  account  of  destruc- 
tion of  its  property  by  mob  violence.  There  was  the  Debs 
strike  in  1894,  the  Union  Pacific  strike  in  1903,  the  Atchi- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  85 

son  strike  in  1904,  and  the  Erie  strike  that  lasted  from  1904 
until  1907.  There  was  a  strike  of  the  Great  Western,  which 
sent  that  road  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver  in  1907;  and  at 
the  present  time  there  is  a  great  railroad  strike  in  process  on 
the  Harriman  lines,  a  strike  involving  many  thousands  of 
employees  and  accompanied  by  violence  which  in  one  of  the 
states  has  necessitated  the  calling  out  of  the  militia ;  a  strike 
accompanied  by  damage  to  property  and  by  murder. 

I  was  with  Mr.  Burt,  President  of  the  Union  Pacific,  at  the 
time  of  his  strike  in  1903.  I  was  called  to  the  Atchison  in  1904 
at  the  time  of  its  machinists'  strike.  The  task  that  the  vice- 
president,  Mr.  Kendrick,  took  up  with  me  was  this:  imme- 
diately to  continue  the  repair  and  renewals  of  the  rolling-stock 
and  the  motive  power  of  the  road,  in  spite  of  the  strike;  sec- 
ondly, to  take  care  of  a  40  per  cent  increase  in  business 
without  securing  new  shops  or  new  equipment,  because  the 
business  came  suddenly,  and  it  would  have  taken  a  long  time 
to  build  the  new  shops  and  to  secure  the  new  equipment; 
thirdly,  to  restore  amicable  relations  between  the  employer 
and  the  employee,  relations  that  had  been  disturbed  for  a 
long  series  of  years  and  had  finally  culminated  in  this  very 
bitter  strike.  And,  finally,  to  lessen  the  unit  cost,  —  although 
this  was  incidental,  it  not  making  so  very  much  difference  to 
the  railroad  whether  its  shop  expenses  were  a  little  higher 
or  a  little  lower,  so  long  as  it  was  able  to  fulfil  its  duty  to 
the  public  and  take  care  of  the  traffic. 

The  Atchison  Road  lies  in  the  triangle  between  the  Union 
Pacific,  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  the  Illinois  Central  lines, 
all  three  Harriman  lines  now  engaged  in  this  strike.  For 
seven  years  there  has  been  no  labor  trouble  of  any  kind  or 
description  between  the  Atchison  and  its  shop  employees. 
Its  unit  costs  in  one  particular  department  fell  to  one-third 
of  what  they  were  on  the  Southern  Pacific  for  the  same  unit. 
And  last  year  the  employees  of  the  Atchison  were  paid  over 
$1,000, coo  in  bonuses  above  the  current  rate  of  wages  on  the 
Union  Pacific  and  the  Southern  Pacific. 

The  attempt  to  introduce  Scientific  Management  on  the 


86  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Atchison  was  of  course  elementary,  crude  and  slight;  but 
such  as  it  was,  it  was  at  least  on  a  large  scale,  and  for  seven 
years  it  has  withstood  the  assault  of  all  kinds  of  critics. 

Like  Mr.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Earth,  I  have  been  able  to  reduce 
cost-operation  to  a  mathematical  formula.  All  operating 
costs,  all  manufacturing  costs,  consist  of  simply  three  elements: 
materials,  labor  and  fixed  charges.  If  the  operation  is  the 
making  of  a  pin,  you  have  the  elements  of  material,  labor  and 
fixed  charges;  and  if  the  operations  are  those  of  the  United 
Steel  Corporation  for  ten  years,  you  have  again  materials, 
labor  and  fixed  charges. 

Materials,  however,  consist  of  two  items,  the  quantity 
that  you  use  and  the  price.  Labor  consists  of  two  items, 
the  time  that  it  takes  and  the  rate  that  you  pay  per 
hour;  and  equipment  charges,  into  which  fixed  charges 
run,  consist  also  of  two  items,  the  time  that  the  equip- 
ment operates  and  its  cost  per  hour  to  operate.  Hitherto 
we  have  all  paid  attention  to  the  price  of  materials,  and 
we  have  particularly  paid  attention  to  the  rate  of  wages 
per  hour,  and  we  have  also  paid  attention  to  the  cost  of 
our  equipment.  Those  are  not  the  important  items.  I 
can  [safely  say  they  are  negligible.  The  important  items  are 
the  quantity  of  material  that  is  used  and  the  time  that  it  takes 
to  do  the  work,  whether  it  is  the  work  of  man  or  whether  it  is 
the  work  of  equipment. 

To  illustrate,  in  a  certain  shop  it  had  been  costing  them 
$12, coo  a  year  for  belting.  They  bought  belting  the  way 
shops  usually  buy  belting  —  the  railroad  shops  at  least.  The 
purchasing  agent  put  it  up  to  the  belt  manufacturers,  and 
the  lowest  bidder  supplied  the  belting;  and  naturally  it  was 
the  very  worst  belting  you  could  possibly  buy  anywhere  in 
the  market,  and  it  wore  out  accordingly.  I  said  to  the  pur- 
chasing agent,  "Buy  the  very  best  belting  that  you  can  se- 
cure in  the  whole  market."  "Why,"  he  said,  "it  will  cost 
50  per  cent  more."  I  said,  "The  manufacturer  is  not  getting 
the  price  he  should  get  for  it.  So  few  people  know  what 
good  belting  is  that  he  has  to  sell  his  best  belting  for  less 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  87 

than  its  relative  value.  So,  not  only  pay  the  highest  market 
price,  but  give  him  5  per  cent  additional  for  the  privilege 
of  turning  back  any  belt  that  we  do  not  want  after  it  has 
been  put  in  operation.  That  will  make  him  careful  to 
furnish  the  very  best  and  that  will  be  worth  the  5  per 
cent."  Price  went  up  and  quantity  went  down,  and  in  the 
next  year  we  spent  $600  for  belting  instead  of  $12,000,  and 
we  had  the  best-belted  large  shop  in  the  world. 

With  labor  it  is  the  same  thing.  I  recently  went  through 
the  machine-shop  of  a  big  textile  mill  in  New  England.  I 
was  not  particularly  interested  in  textiles,  but  I  was  inter- 
ested in  the  machine-shop.  And  when  I  came  back,  the  presi- 
dent asked  me  what  I  thought  of  it.  I  somewhat  unwisely 
said,  "I  don't  think  very  much  of  your  machine-shop."  He 
bridled  at  that,  very  much  as  a  woman  bridles  when  you  tell 
her  that  her  baby  isn't  pretty.  And  the  master  mechanic 
said  to  me,  "Do  you  understand  that  this  is  a  shop  where  we 
do  repair  work?  We  are  not  a  manufacturing  shop;  we  may 
tie  up  a  mill  if  we  hesitate,  if  we  delay  about  any  work.  Have 
you  realized  that  we  cannot  apply  all  these  refinements  of 
methods  and  cards  and  so  on  which  you  put  into  a  shop  that 
is  manufacturing?  "  I  might  have  said  that,  having  been  many 
years  in  the  problem,  I  had  not  overlooked  it,  but  the  presi- 
dent said,  "Let  us  go  out  at  once,  and  you  tell  me  what  you 
mean."  We  went  out  and  the  first  machine  that  we  came  to 
had  a  little  piece  of  steel  on  it  about  the  size  of  a  visiting  card. 
It  was  a  little  slotter.  It  was  overrunning  the  stroke  three- 
fold instead  of  just  making  a  little  cut  across.  The  tool  was 
in  the  metal  only  one-sixth  of  the  time.  The  efficiency  was 
only  30  per  cent  as  to  time.  The  speed  of  stroke  was  only 
one- third  as  fast  as  it  should  have  been  —  an  efficiency  of 
speed  of  33  per  cent.  They  had  a  diamond-point  tool  for 
taking  a  sixty-fourth  of  an  inch.  I  think  they  might  have 
taken  with  the  round-nose  tool  that  Mr.  Taylor  described 
last  night  probably  an  eighth  of  an  inch;  we  will  allow  them 
a  sixteenth.  The  efficiency  of  the  feed,  therefore,  was  only 
25  per  cent.  He  was  taking  four  cuts  when  a  roughing  cut 


88  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

and  a  smooth  cut  would  have  been  sufficient.  That  would 
have  brought  him  down  to  50  per  cent  on  the  number  of 
cuts.  The  end  efficiency  of  that  particular  operation  was 
only  one  and  a  quarter  per  cent.  He  was  taking  eighty 
times  as  long  to  do  the  work  as  he  should  have.  I  said  to 
the  president,  "I  don't  care  whether  that  is  a  repair  opera- 
tion or  not,  I  don't  care  whether  your  mill  is  tied  up;  I  am 
somewhat  doubtful  whether  it  is  necessary  to  do  the  work; 
but  assuming  that  it  is,  at  any  rate  under  Scientific  Manage- 
ment you  would  not  overrun  your  cuts,  you  would  not  have 
these  microscopic  feeds,  you  would  not  be  taking  four  cuts 
where  two  are  sufficient,  and  you  would  save  time  on  your 
breakdowns." 

It  takes  supervising  intelligence  to  adjust  the  tool  to  the 
hardness  of  the  material,  to  make  a  machine  get  the  most 
out  of  a  tool;  and  this  supervising  intelligence  is  not  only 
worth  money  but  it  commands  money.  Under  Scientific 
Management  it  commands  more  money  than  ever  before, 
because  Scientific  Management  recognizes  the  intelligence, 
measures  its  value  in  dollars  and  cents,  and  realizes  that  it 
can  be  maintained  and  stimulated  only  by  an  efficiency 
award. 

The  profit  made  by  a  worker  is  not  his  cost  of  pay  per 
hour,  but  the  difference  between  his  expense  per  hour  and 
his  earnings  per  hour.  Under  Scientific  Management  a 
worker  may  reduce  his  expense  20  per  cent  and  increase 
his  earnings  30  per  cent,  thus  increasing  his  net  earnings 
several  hundred  per  cent. 

That  is  the  opportunity  of  labor  under  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. It  is  not  imaginary,  for  I  have  known  a  great  many 
men  who  were  simply  on  the  ragged  edge,  men  approaching 
middle  age,  who  increased  their  net  income  from  $2  and  $3 
a  month,  which  was  all  they  were  able  to  save,  up  to  $25 
and  $30  and  $40  and  even  $50  a  month,  which  they  invested 
in  houses,  in  building  societies,  while  one  of  them  set  up  an 
automobile  repair  shop  with  his  savings  and  of  course  is  on 
the  road  to  become  a  millionaire. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  89 

The  incident  of  one  and  a  quarter  per  cent,  which  I  have 
described,  illustrates  the  law  of  dependent  sequence.  When 
you  have  a  number  of  operations  succeeding  each  other,  one 
coming  after  the  other,  each  of  them  may  be  relatively 
efficient,  but  when  you  multiply  the  inefficiencies  of  each  with 
the  inefficiencies  of  all  the  others,  the  net  result  is  a  tre- 
mendous shrinkage  in  the  possible  output,  as  in  that  actual 
example  which  I  have  given,  of  an  efficiency  on  the  little  piece 
of  steel  of  only  one  and  a  quarter  per  cent.  Now  this  law 
of  dependent  sequence  was  not  formerly  so  much  in  evidence 
and  operation  and  so  effective  as  it  is  today. 

The  cost  formula  of  efficiency  shows  that  as  higher  and 
higher  efficiencies  are  realized,  drones,  idlers,  as  well  as  other 
wastes  are  eliminated,  and  those  who  actually  do  the  work 
make  all  the  direct  gain.  It  is  the  duty  and  obligation  of 
modern  manhood,  of  the  modern  corporation,  of  the  modern 
state,  it  is  the  supreme  end  of  Scientific  Management,  to  see 
that  no  worker  plays  unfairly,  that  all  workers  have  an  equal 
chance. 

It  furthermore  appears  that  strenuousness  and  efficiency 
are  antagonistic  and  opposite.  The  inevitable  result  of  effi- 
ciency is  to  lessen  the  effort  per  hour,  but  to  give  the  worker 
higher  pay  for  the  hour.  The  greatest  opportunity  which  has 
ever  come  to  the  world's  workers  is  the  one  now  offering,  and 
if  they  are  wise  they  will  seize  it  and  insist  on  the  immediate 
adoption  of  efficiency  ideals,  since  the  inevitable  and  unes- 
capable  result  of  efficiency  is  to  increase  pay  and  lessen  effort. 
Scientific  Management  will  bring  reward  to  whoever  prac- 
tises it.  Will  the  wise  few  practise  it  and  reap  reward,  or 
will  the  many  become  wise,  practise  it,  and  reap  reward? 
Those  of  us  who  have  been  closest  to  the  development  of 
the  science  hope  that  it  will  be  used  by  all,  not  by  the  few, 
and  I  shall  briefly  refer  to  one  example  of  the  way  Scientific 
Management  works  for  the  benefit  of  all  concerned. 

For  seven  years  there  had  been  no  shop  labor  dispute  on 
the  Santa  Fe.  Last  year  the  employees  were  paid  a  bonus 
above  current  wage  rates  of  over  $1,000,000,  yet  unit 


go  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

costs  were  less  than  on  the  paralleling  roads,  because  on  the 
Santa  Fe  the  principle  prevails  that  the  lower  the  cost  of  the 
road,  the  higher  the  pay  to  the  employee,  and  also  the  principle 
that  to  work  under  standardized  conditions  is  easier  than  to 
work  under  unstandardized  conditions.  On  the  Santa  Fe  it 
is  conditions  that  have  been  standardized,  not  toil  that  has 
been  increased;  it  is  wastes  and  costs  that  have  been 
decreased  in  order  that  pay  may  be  increased. 

What  is  Scientific  Management?  Why  should  there  be 
Scientific  Management?  What  is  the  opportunity  of  labor 
under  Scientific  Management? 

Let  us  first  answer  the  second  question.  Why  should  there 
be  Scientific  Management?  Why  is  the  good  old  way  not 
still  the  best? 

Up  to  a  hundred  years  ago  human  beings  used  yesterday's 
sun,  last  season's  sun  to  do  today's  work.  We  were  drawing 
distinctly  on  the  current  activities  of  the  sun.  Today  we 
have  tapped  the  sun's  savings-bank,  we  are  dissipating  the 
energy  the  sun  collected  for  us  millions  of  years  ago  through 
ages  and  ages.  Two  centuries  ago,  yes,  as  recently  as  when 
I  was  a  child,  we  grew  corn  and  wheat  which  animals  and  men 
ate,  and  animal  muscles  and  human  muscles  did  the  world's 
work.  Today  it  is  coal  and  oil  and  gas  that  run  our  trains, 
our  plows,  our  factories,  our  mills. 

When  I  was  born,  one-quarter  of  a  ton  of  coal  per  inhabi- 
tant was  the  annual  production  of  the  United  States,  about 
as  much  horse-power  as  two  able-bodied  men  could  deliver  in 
a  year.  In  1910  the  annual  production  was  twenty- two  times 
as  much,  or  as  many  horse-power  hours  as  forty-four  able- 
bodied  men  can  deliver. 

Last  week  in  Indiana  I  saw  three  oil  pull-engines  hitched 
to  a  gang  of  fifty-one  plows  turn  over  eighteen  acres  in  an 
hour;  they  could  plow  up  a  square  mile  of  land  in  thirty-six 
hours  with  two  shifts  of  eight  men.  I  have  seen  ground  that 
has  never  been  plowed,  always  spaded.  It  would  take  a  man 
560  seasons  to  spade  up  a  square  mile  of  unbroken  prairie. 
I  once  started  out  to  break  a  section  of  level  land.  I  had 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  91 

a  good  span  of  mules  and  a  good  breaking  plow.  I  soon  dis- 
covered that  my  maximum  output  was  two  acres  a  day  and 
that  it  would  take  me  four  seasons  to  finish  a  section.  I  felt 
as  if  I  had  been  condemned  to  four  years  at  hard  labor  and  I 
quit.  With  oil  pull-engines  and  modern  gang-plows  it  would 
have  taken  sixteen  of  us  less  than  a  month  to  plow  up  sixteen 
sections,  10,240  acres. 

When  I  was  a  child  we  utilized  the  eighth  of  an  inch  of  the 
fall  of  a  river  to  turn  slowly  great  water-wheels,  developing 
a  few  horse-power.  Today  we  utilize  from  crest  to  foot  the 
falls  of  Niagara,  the  drainage  of  a  great  lake  region.  In  the 
words  of  the  philosopher  Bowsher  of  Cleveland,  "Formerly 
we  used  incarnate  energy,  today  we  are  utilizing  uncarnate 
energy." 

Uncarnate  energy  hurls  our  cannon-shot  eight  miles  at  an 
enemy  so  far  away  he  can  scarcely  be  seen;  uncarnate  energy 
drives  the  "Lusitania"  thirty  miles  an  hour  across  the  ocean, 
drives  our  trains  in  eighteen  hours  from  New  York  to  Chicago, 
lights  our  cities,  moves  our  trolley-cars,  turns  our  machinery, 
hustles  the  automobile  along  our  public  roads  at  forty 
miles  an  hour  and  hurls  the  aeroplane  12,000  feet  high 
or  in  straight  flight  at  ninety  miles  an  hour.  It  is  the 
greatest  source  of  wealth  that  we  have  tapped  since  we 
learned  how  to  loot  the  accumulated  stores  of  energy  which 
lie  in  the  earth,  —  since  we  have  learned  also  how  to  utilize 
the  uncarnate  sources  of  energy  in  man  himself. 

But  we  are  still  living  under  the  laws,  under  the  theories, 
under  the  practices  and  ideals,  under  the  habits  of  thought 
of  the  age  of  incarnate  energy;  and  those  laws,  those  theories, 
those  practices,  those  ideals,  those  habits  of  thought  do  not 
fit  present  conditions. 

We  need  new  ideals,  we  need  new  principles;  we  need  new 
practices,  new  types  of  organization,  new  equipment;  we  need 
a  new  science,  we  need  new  types  of  executives,  and  these 
new  creations  we  group  under  the  title  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. It  is  because  of  the  new  ideals  and  the  new  science 
that  the  old  way  is  "no  good." 


92  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

A  generation  ago,  when  men  first  tapped  the  natural  gas, 
what  did  they  do  with  it?  They  let  it  flow  out  into  the  air, 
a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  a  column  of  smoke  by  day.  They 
did  not  use  one  one-thousandth  part  of  its  energy  for  any 
useful  purpose  whatever.  Today  we  husband  it  as  the 
most  precious  of  fuels.  We  have  applied  science  to  its  use. 

The  American  people  whose  nation  is  founded  on  a  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  must  put  under  scientific  control  and 
management  the  tremendous  revolution  that  is  going  on.  If 
not,  it  would  be  better  that  we  had  never  discovered  how  to 
use  uncarnate  energy.  If  we  are  not  ready  to  become  men, 
it  were  better  to  remain  children.  We  should  be  better  than 
pyromaniacs  setting  fire  to  the  world  for  the  stupid  pleasure 
of  watching  it  burn.  We  are  like  a  young  man  formerly  in 
short  allowance  who  has  suddenly  inherited  a  great  fortune. 
Shall  we  wisely  use  it? 

Scientific  Management  is  therefore  the  discovery  and  use 
without  waste  of  the  incarnate  and  uncarnate  energy  of  the 
universe. 

What  is  the  aim  of  Scientific  Management?  It  is  intelli- 
gently to  use  all  the  available  resources  and  knowledge  of 
the  universe  in  order  to  realize  definite  ideals.  The  ideals 
are:  to  use  incarnate  and  uncarnate  energy  and  incarnate 
intelligence,  to  decrease  toil,  to  lessen  costs  that  wages  and 
profits  may  be  increased;  and  so  to  distribute  the  loot  of 
uncarnate  energy  and  of  the  infinite  possibilities  of  incarnate 
intelligence  as  to  lessen  the  friction  between  man  and  man, 
thus  raising  moral,  mental  and  physical  standards,  but  at  the 
same  time  lessening  the  destructive  strain  of  living. 

Twenty-three  hundred  years  ago  Pericles,  in  his  funeral 
oration  for  the  Athenian  soldiers  who  fell  at  Marathon,  stated 
the  ideals  of  his  age;  ideals  that  in  noble  height  and  beauti- 
ful expression  have  never  been  surpassed;  ideals  that  a  few 
hundred  Athenians  were  able  to  attain  out  of  a  population 
of  many  hundred  thousand;  ideals  that  in  this  generation 
for  the  first  time  in  history  can  be  made  the  heritage  of  all, 
and  will  be  made  the  heritage  of  those  who  reach  up  their 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  93 

heads,  their  hearts  and  their  hands,  and  take.  Pericles  said, 
"We  aim  at  a  life  beautiful  without  extravagance,  and  con- 
templative without  unmanliness;  wealth  in  our  eyes  is  a 
thing  not  for  ostentation  but  for  reasonable  use,  and  it  is  not 
the  acknowledgment  of  poverty  that  we  think  disgraceful, 
but  the  want  and  endeavor  to  avoid  it."  The  aim  of  Scientific 
Management  is  to  realize  for  every  worker  Pericles'  ideals. 
It  is  to  give  the  worker  his  share  in  the  sack  of  the  sun's 
savings-bank,  to  give  it  to  him  intelligently,  without  waste 
and  fairly,  and  to  give  it  to  him  as  soon  as  is  possible. 

The  struggle  of  the  age  is  to  induce  both  employer  and 
worker  to  use  uncarnate  energy  scientifically.  Both  can 
delay  the  day,  neither  can  prevent  its  advent. 

Wages  have  increased  only  where  uncarnate  energy  has 
displaced  incarnate  energy,  and  I  defy  any  employer  per- 
manently to  depress  the  wages  of  men  who  use  uncarnate 
energy;  I  defy  any  union  of  workers  permanently  to  raise 
wages  for  incarnate  energy. 

Those  labor  leaders  who  pretend  that  unionism  is  the  cause 
of  wage  advance  deceive  their  followers,  and  those  labor 
leaders  who  denounce  the  scientific  management  of  uncarnate 
energy,  not  only  fight  against  their  best  friend,  but  they  re- 
mind me  of  the  bull,  with  lowered  head,  planted  on  the  track, 
awaiting  the  onrush  of  a  modern  train.  A  very  fine  manifes- 
tation of  pluck,  but  lamentably  poor  exhibition  of  judgment. 

The  aim  of  philosophic,  scientific  action  is: 

(i)  To  discover  and  make  available  the  hitherto  unknown 
resources  of  the  universe.  (2)  To  eliminate  wastes  from  the 
utilization  of  both  the  old  and  new  sources  of  energy.  (3)  To 
distribute  equitably  the  gain.  Is  there  any  dissent  from  these 
ideals?  Efficiency  has  no  use  for  the  man  who  is  anxious 
neither  to  discover  nor  to  utilize  the  resources  of  the  universe. 
Efficiency  has  no  use  for  the  man  who  is  callous  to  the  waste 
of  those  resources.  Efficiency  has  no  use  for  the  man,  worker 
or  employer,  has  no  use  for  the  corporation  or  the  state, 
which  does  not  strive  to  distribute  the  gain  equitably. 

In  Alaska  I  once  came  to  a  cabin.    On  the  door  was  a  notice: 


94  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

"You  who  come  are  welcome  to  use  but  not  to  abuse  what 
you  find.  Eat,  but  do  not  waste,  lest  you  harm  those  who 
come  later."  This  is  the  law  of  the  world  and  it  is  also  the 
law  of  efficiency. 

The  laws  are  fundamental.  We  are  willing  to  explain  them, 
to  reason  about  them,  but  we  are  not  willing  to  admit  that 
they  are  questionable.  If  we  cannot  convert  him,  we  shall 
eliminate  the  man  who  would  turn  backwards  the  clock  of 
the  universe.  If  we  cannot  convert  him,  we  shall  eliminate 
the  man  who  deliberately  wastes  our  heritage  and  that 
of  our  children;  if  we  cannot  convert  them,  we  shall  eliminate 
those  who  stand  in  the  way  of  equitable  distribution  of  the 
gain. 

The  third  question  is,  what  is  the  opportunity  of  labor 
under  Scientific  Management?  It  is  the  greatest  opportunity 
that  ever  came  to  labor;  the  opportunity  to  play  the  game 
according  to  the  rule,  and  to  demand  individually,  collect- 
ively and  through  the  state  an  equitable  share  of  the 
immense  loot  to  which  humanity  has  suddenly  fallen  heir. 

In  so  far  as  labor  countenances  waste  and  inefficiency,  in 
so  far  as  it  objects  to  the  substitution  of  uncarnate  energy 
for  incarnate  energy,  in  so  far  as  it  advocates  two  hours' 
time  for  one  hour's  work,  in  so  far  as  it  tolerates  two  men  on 
one  man's  job,  in  so  far  as  it  refuses  to  accept  the  principle 
of  definite  time  for  each  operation,  in  so  far  as  it  objects  to 
the  fundamental  principle  of  different  capacities  in  different 
men  with  corresponding  variation  in  hourly  rate,  labor  is 
running  counter  to  the  fundamentals  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment and  is  delaying  the  greatest  opportunity  that  ever  came 
to  it.  The  question  of  hours  of  work  per  day  is  a  subsidiary 
question.  I  have  never  yet  seen  an  employer  object  to  count- 
ing four  hours  as  a  full  day's  work  at  high  pay  when  the  con- 
ditions surrounding  the  work  clearly  justify  this  short  time. 
The  question  of  wages  per  hour  is  also  a  subsidiary  question. 
I  have  seen  plant  owners  cheerfully  pay  to  their  workers 
$12  a  day.  This  was  in  Alaska;  but  I  spent  the  evening 
before  I  came  up  here  with  the  owner  of  a  glass  plant  from 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  95 

West  Virginia,  and  in  looking  over  his  wage  sheet  we  found 
one  man  whose  daily  wages  had  averaged  above  $13.10,  and 
another  on  the  same  work,  whose  average  was  only  $3.75; 
and  we  both  deplored,  not  that  one  man  was  earning  $10 
more,  but  that  the  other  was  earning  $10  less,  since  the 
$13.10  man's  work  was  the  cheapest  in  cost  in  the  whole 
plant.  What  I  deplored  with  the  Alaskan  workers  was 
not  the  $12  a  day,  but  that,  when  the  three  months' 
season  was  over,  these  same  men,  returning  to  the  United 
States,  idled  the  nine  months  away  rather  than  work  for  the 
local  wage  of  $3  a  day.  There  is  a  splendid  oriental  proverb : 
"It  is  better  to  work  without  pay  than  to  loaf  without  pur- 
pose." The  world's  greatest  workers  have  always  been  those 
who  worked  whether  there  was  pay  in  it  or  not. 

Counseling  the  employee,  I  regret  that  able-bodied  men 
in  the  prime  of  life  deprive  themselves  and  their  class  of 
$600  a  year  more  which  each  might  have  earned. 

The  efficiency  formula  of  cost  is  as  inexorable  as  the  formula 
of  centrifugal  force.  In  every  object  produced  there  are 
twenty-eight  elements  of  cost,  whether  the  object  be  a  single 
pin  or  the  total  output  for  ten  years  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation.  Compensation  per  hour  of  workers  is  one 
of  the  twenty-eight  items  of  cost.  As  the  other  twenty-seven 
items  are  changed  to  secure  lower  cost,  the  twenty-eighth 
item  of  wages  must  increase.  It  is  cost  inefficiency  that 
lowers  wages,  and  nothing  can  raise  wages  but  cost  effi- 
ciency. 

First  of  all,  let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  strenuousness 
and  efficiency  are  not  only  not  identical  but  usually  opposites. 

To  be  strenuous  is  not  the  same  thing  as  to  be  efficient. 
The  man  who  spends  two  hours  a  day  as  a  strap-hanger  in 
the  fetid  subway,  going  to  and  from  his  work,  is  living  strenu- 
ously but  not  efficiently.  The  man  who  tries  to  read  several 
daily  papers  and  all  the  monthly  magazines  is  a  strenuous 
but  not  efficient  reader.  The  American  people  are  the  most 
strenuous  people  on  earth,  but  also  among  the  least  efficient. 
A  man  may  be  very  easy-going  and  with  it  be  either  efficient 


96  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

or  inefficient.  Scientific  Management's  aim  is  to  replace  the 
inefficient  strenuous  life  as  well  as  the  inefficient  lazy  life  with 
the  efficient  life,  preferably  easy. 

Modern  life  is  too  strenuous;  that  is  a  different  question. 
It  was  perhaps  easier  for  the  carpenter  to  work  twelve  hours 
a  day  in  his  own  shop,  next  to  his  own  house,  than  to  work 
eight  hours  a  day,  and  spend  two  hours  a  day  standing  in  the 
crowded,  often  fetid,  subway  with  a  long  walk  at  both  ends 
of  the  route. 

The  strenuous  life  has  engulfed  us  all;  we  live  hard  whether 
we  are  at  the  top  or  at  the  bottom.  Peary  voluntarily  led  a 
strenuous  life  for  twenty-three  years,  trying  to  reach  the 
North  Pole.  He  did  not  have  to,  he  wanted  to.  What  is 
the  gain  to  any  one  in  a  horse  trotting  a  mile  in  two  minutes 
rather  than  in  two  minutes  and  ten  seconds,  or  what  is  the 
gain  in  the  terrific  struggle  between  two  baseball  teams?  If 
strenuousness  is  the  ideal,  then  Scientific  Management  will 
show  how  to  attain  it,  but  it  could  equally  well  show  how  to 
attain  languorous  ease. 

An  Irishman  who  was  scraping  a  fiddle  was  asked  whether 
he  was  playing  the  violin  by  note  or  by  rote.  "By  nather, 
it's  by  main  force,  be  jabbers,"  and  he  should  have  added,  by 
awkwardness. 

To  stand  a  lifetime  on  one  leg  on  top  of  a  pillar  is  strenuous, 
but  it  is  not  efficient.  To  see  the  moons  with  the  naked  eye, 
as  some  Tatars  can,  is  efficient,  but  not  strenuous.  For 
Prussia  to  conquer  the  balance  of  Germany  in  three  summer 
weeks  was  efficient,  but  not  very  strenuous;  for  Germany  to 
overcome  Napoleon  III  in  seven  summer  weeks  was  efficient, 
but  not  strenuous. 

Many  thinkers,  labor  leaders,  workmen  and  others  have 
confounded  strenuousness  with  efficiency,  and  have  jumped 
to  the  conclusion  that  piece-work  is  a  sample  of  efficiency 
when  in  reality  it  is  the  apotheosis  of  strenuousness.  Effi- 
ciency means  accomplishing  any  result  with  the  least  time- 
effort.  To  creep  slowly  is  neither  efficient  or  strenuous.  To 
creep  well  is  efficient  but  not  strenuous.  To  creep  fast  is 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  97 

strenuous  but  not  efficient.  To  walk  two  miles  an  hour  is 
neither  efficient  nor  strenuous.  To  walk  three  and  a  half 
miles  an  hour  is  efficient  but  not  strenuous.  To  walk  five 
miles  an  hour  is  strenuous  but  not  efficient.  To  ride  a  bicycle 
six  miles  an  hour  is  neither  efficient  nor  strenuous.  To  ride 
a  bicycle  twelve  miles  an  hour  is  efficient  but  not  strenuous. 
To  ride  a  bicycle  thirty  miles  an  hour  is  strenuous  but  not 
efficient. 

For  engineer  and  fireman  to  run  an  oil-burning  locomotive 
sixty  miles  an  hour  over  a  clear  and  good  track  is  efficient  but 
not  strenuous.  I  was  once  riding  on  one  of  the  oil-burning 
engines  of  the  Santa  Fe  and  we  were  hurrying  along  at  sixty 
miles  an  hour.  On  one  side  sat  the  engineer,  on  the  other 
the  fireman.  I  was  sitting  beside  the  fireman  watching  him 
as  with  his  thumb  and  fore-finger  he  governed  the  flow  of  oil, 
and  he  turned  to  me  and  said,  "This  is  a  cinch."  But  then 
he  had  a  second  thought  coming,  and  he  thought  that  it  was 
imprudent  to  talk  that  way  to  me,  who  was  advising  the  road 
as  to  economies.  He  tapped  me  on  the  shoulder  and  above 
the  noise  of  the  locomotive  he  said,  "But  think  of  the  added 
responsibility!"  He  was  right,  although  he  may  have  put 
it  in  the  wrong  way.  I  was  glad  to  see  him  earn  higher  wages 
for  less  effort.  To  drive  a  donkey  at  two  miles  through  desert 
sand  is  strenuous  but  not  efficient.  To  spade  up  forty  acres 
in  560  man-seasons  is  strenuous  but  not  efficient.  To  plow 
up  640  acres  in  thirty-six  hours  with  a  set  of  oil  pull-and 
gang  plows  is  efficient  but  not  strenuous. 

Let  us  therefore  abolish  from  our  minds  the  apprehension 
and  antipathy  that  rightly  attach  to  inefficient  strenuous- 
ness,  and  let  us  welcome  efficiency  flavored  with  just  as  much, 
and  no  more,  strenuousness  as  is  good  for  us,  with  full  knowl- 
edge that  highly  strenuous  efficiency  is  not  so  economical  nor 
so  good  for  us  as  a  moderate  scientific  efficiency. 

Therefore  Efficiency  and  Scientific  Management  do  not 
include  the  ideals  of  terrific  stunts,  of  exhausting  endeavor,  of 
stupendous  exertion.  On  the  contrary  psychologists,  physiol- 
ogists, hygienists,  all  of  whose  counsel  is  necessary  for  Scien- 


g8  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

tific  Management,  will  tell  you  that  depression  in  any  form  is 
inimical  to  high  attainment,  is  a  form  of  disease  whether  it 
comes  from  the  reaction  of  alcoholism,  of  extreme  exertion, 
or  from  repellent  and  deadening  work. 

Mr.  Herman  Schneider,  the  educator,  divides  work  into 
two  classes,  energizing  and  lethargizing.  There  is  effort  that 
fills  us  with  joy,  other  effort  that  fills  us  with  revulsion.  It 
is  the  aim  of  Scientific  Management  to  give  every  one  joyous, 
not  deadening  effort. 

A  friend  of  mine  had  gone  through  a  large  New  England 
mill  to  study  possibilities  of  improving  efficiency,  and  as  he 
came  out  of  a  certain  department,  he  said  to  the  president: 
"The  men  in  that  department  give  you  more  trouble  than 
any  other  men  in  the  whole  mill;  and  not  only  that,  but  in 
the  town  they  are  the  most  disorderly  citizens,  causing  trouble 
and  fuss.  Not  only  that,  but  in  their  home  lives  they  are 
unsatisfactory;  they  go  away  and  leave  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren." And  the  president  said,  "All  those  things  are  true, 
but  how  did  you  know  it?"  He  replied,  "The  lethargizing 
work  that  they  do  makes  that  kind  of  men."  When  a  man 
has  been  doing  lethargizing,  deadening,  repellent  work,  where 
the  noise  was  so  great  that  he  could  not  even  hear  himself 
think,  and  keeping  that  up  for  ten  hours,  after  he  comes  home 
he  has  to  become  some  sort  of  an  anarchist  to  get  even.  The 
Germans  have  a  proverb,  "All  barbers  are  conservatives  and 
all  tailors  radicals."  And  that  illustrates  a  profound  psycho- 
logical truth.  The  barber,  who  is  busy  with  his  different 
customers,  —  in  the  old  time  bleeding  this  one,  making  a  wig 
for  that  one,  shaving  a  third,  taking  out  a  tooth  of  a  fourth, 
dressing  the  hair  of  a  fifth,  exchanging  the  gossip  of  the  day  — 
had  plenty  of  opportunity  to  work  off  his  surplus  energy,  his 
surplus  feelings  and  thoughts.  The  tailor,  sitting  with  his 
legs  crossed,  all  day  long  in  the  monotony  of  drawing  the 
needle  through  the  cloth,  was  engaged  in  lethargizing  employ- 
ment which  deadened  him,  and  when  he  came  out  the  only 
way  he  could  get  even  was  to  think  radically  and  wish  to  act 
radically. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  99 

The  best  illustration  that  I  know  of  the  difference  be- 
tween strenuousness  and  efficiency  is  found  in  the  difference 
between  the  rooster  trying  to  fly  and  the  eagle.  The  rooster, 
if  you  chase  him,  squawks  and  flutters  and  by  great  exer- 
tion is  able  to  clear  an  eight-foot  fence,  and  he  soon  runs 
into  a  corner  where  you  catch  him  with  his  mouth  open, 
panting.  The  eagle  soars  hour  after  hour  and  never  moves  a 
pinion.  The  rooster  flies  strenuously,  the  eagle  flies  efficiently, 
poised  as  easily  as  the  fireman  sat  on  his  oil-burning  loco- 
motive. Therefore,  one  of  the  fallacies  that  both  managers 
and  men  have  to  dismiss  from  their  minds  is  that  Scientific 
Management  in  any  way  whatever  means  an  increase  of 
strenuousness.  It  means  the  reverse;  it  means  less  effort 
and  greater  result. 

Having  discovered  that  strenuousness  is  not  one  of  the 
aims  or  ideals  of  efficiency,  we  return  to  the  three  aims:  (i) 
The  recovery  of  the  hidden  resources.  (2)  The  elimination 
of  waste.  (3)  The  equitable  distribution  of  the  gain. 

It  is  immensely  important  not  to  discourage  those  who 
reveal  national  resources,  who  eliminate  wastes.  We  cannot 
very  well  over-pay  them. 

It  is  a  tremendously  pernicious  fallacy  that  the  poverty 
of  the  few  is  due  to  the  wealth  of  the  few.  Even  if  it  is  true 
that  2  per  cent  of  the  few  possess  90  per  cent  of  all  the 
wealth  and  that  2  per  cent  of  the  poor  are  starving;  even 
if  it  is  true  that  i  ,600,000  people  are  starving  in  the  United 
States  —  and  we  know  that  in  this  land  of  plenty  this  is  not 
true  —  there  is  not  one  scintilla  of  evidence  that  the  poverty 
is  caused  by  the  riches. 

In  the  Seward  Peninsula,  Alaska,  were  many  Eskimos. 
They  had  lived  there  many  thousand  years.  They  barely 
subsisted,  there  was  no  gain  in  wealth  from  generation  to 
generation,  there  was  no  gain  in  population,  for  occasionally 
in  severe  seasons  whole  settlements  were  wiped  out  by 
starvation. 

Into  this  country  came  a  Swedish  deserter  from  a  whaling 
ship.  He  found  indications  of  gold,  he  staked  some  claims. 


100  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

The  rush  began.  Miners  capable  of  working  claims  received 
$10  a  day.  Gamblers,  saloon  keepers,  lewd  women,  came 
in  great  numbers. 

The  claim-owners  distributed  much  of  the  gold  from  these 
mines  to  the  workers  and  to  the  ditch-builders,  and  spent 
the  gold  for  machinery.  Some  of  the  claim- workers,  after 
paying  the  bare  cost  of  living  and  clothes,  squandered  their 
money  on  the  gamblers  and  women.  The  right  to  distinc- 
tion of  one  of  the  original  prospectors  was  not  so  much  that 
he  had  found  a  mine  as  that  he  had  paid  $1,000  for  the  favor 
of  a  woman  who  thus  also  gained  distinction. 

The  Eskimos  also  profited.  They  found  a  market  for  their 
furs,  for  their  carved  ivories,  for  the  fish  they  caught;  many 
of  them  worked  for  wages  instead  of  lolling  in  the  Arctic 
summer  sun. 

There  were  in  this  elementary  community  four  classes  of 
society:  (i)  The  abnormally  intelligent  few  who  had  un- 
covered hidden  wealth,  gold-bearing  rock.  (2)  The  men  who 
worked  or  contributed  to  the  working  of  the  claims.  (3)  An 
abjectly  poor  class  at  the  bottom,  the  Eskimos.  (4)  A 
predatory  class  of  parasites. 

Can  it  be  claimed  that  the  poverty  of  the  Eskimos  was 
due  to  the  wealth  of  the  mine-owners?  Can  it  be  claimed  that 
the  poverty  of  the  Eskimos  was  due  to  the  appropriation 
of  natural  resources  by  the  mine-owners?  Would  the  class 
of  mine-workers  and  the  Eskimos  have  been  benefited  if  the 
mine  discoverer  had  been  killed  off  before  he  could  make 
known  these  discoveries?  Is  the  class  of  wealth  discoverers 
a  benefit  to  humanity  or  not?  Should  any  but  natural  laws 
be  invoked  to  take  from  the  discoverers  what  they  have 
discovered  and  distribute  it  to  the  workers,  the  loiterers  and 
the  evil-doers? 

Men  of  initiative,  the  world  over,  have  discovered  wealth 
that  had  lain  dormant  for  thousands  of  years.  Columbus 
discovered  America,  Astor  developed  the  fur  trade,  James  J. 
Hill  built  a  railroad  through  a  desert,  Armour  saved  what 
had  formerly  been  wasted  in  the  slaughter  of  cattle  and  hogs, 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMJEiSlT  '<•;&% 

Rockefeller  saved  what  had  been  wasted  in  refining  crude  oil, 
Harriman  added  to  the  value  of  railroad  property  by  reduc- 
ing grades,  laying  a  better  road-bed,  and  carrying  larger  loads 
more  rapidly  and  cheaply. 

Before  the  days  of  the  Norman  conquest  there  were  unusu- 
ally poor  and  degraded  people  in  London.  Their  condition 
has  steadily  improved;  never  through  their  own  efforts,  but 
always  through  those  of  the  enterprising  few  who  went  out 
to  trade  abroad,  or  to  build  up  manufactures  at  home,  or  to 
open  up  coal  and  iron  mines.  In  what  way  is  the  wealth  of 
the  enterprising  few  responsible  for  the  abject  poverty  of  the 
few  when  this  poverty  has  been  steadily  lessening  century 
after  century? 

At  Nome  the  wealth  of  the  mine-owner,  inside  of  a  few 
weeks,  began  to  filter  down  to  the  Eskimos  because  there 
were  only  four  classes.  In  England  it  takes  longer  because 
there  are  400  classes  between  the  top  and  the  bottom,  but 
the  process  is  the  same. 

There  are  two  theories  to  wealth  distribution:  (i)  Accord- 
ing to  a  man's  deed.  (2)  According  to  a  man's  need. 

The  first  applies  to  man  as  distinct  from  woman,  and  after 
man  conquered,  each  man  applies  the  second  theory  to  women 
and  children.  To  the  limit  of  the  man's  ability  the  needs  of 
the  women,  and  through  them  the  needs  of -the  children,  are 
met. 

Shall  we  extend  the  application  of  the  theory  of  need  also 
to  men  in  their  relations  to  each  other?  When  the  sailor 
discovered  the  mine,  should  a  committee  of  Eskimos  have 
been  appointed  to  take  care  of  it  and  work  it  for  the  common 
good?  As  the  Eskimos  in  500,000  years  had  not  discovered 
the  mine  over  which  they  passed  daily;  as  the  Eskimos,  in 
fact,  placed  no  value  in  gold,  being  perhaps  wiser  than  we  in 
this  respect;  as  they  could  not  have  worked  it  even  if  they 
had  discovered  it;  as  ultimately  they  would  have  to  depend 
on  a  strong  man  who  knew  how,  can  we  escape  from  the 
present  order? 

Which  is  better?    That  each  one  of  us,  like  the  birds,  hunt 


SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

earthworms  and  flies  for  himself,  as  do  the  robins  and  swal- 
lows; or  that  the  many  stand  to  attention  waiting  for  the 
lion  to  make  a  killing,  then  pounce  on  his  prey,  drive  him  off 
and  apportion  it  between  them? 

i  Some  men  become  beggars  and  parasites  though  born  whole, 
Mothers  born  blind  or  without  legs  become  prominent  and  use- 
|ful  members  of  society.  In  all  but  the  fewest  cases  actual 
poverty  and  degradation  is  due  to  the  fault  of  the  individual, 
not  to  the  fault  of  society,  not  to  the  fault  of  other  individuals. 
That  philosophy  that  thinks  the  boy  at  the  bottom  of  the  line 
in  the  spelling-bee  is  there  because  the  boy  at  the  top  missed 
no  words,  that  the  ignorance  of  the  boy  at  the  bottom  is 
the  consequence  of  the  scholarship  of  the  boy  at  the  top, 
is  not  hurting  the  boy  at  the  top,  who  knows  better,  half 
so  much  as  it  is  hurting  the  boy  at  the  bottom,  who,  instead 
of  learning  his  lesson,  rails  and  rants  at  both  teacher  and 
good  spellers. 

Columbus  discovered  America,  our  forefathers  started  the 
Revolution,  Howe  put  the  eye  in  the  point  of  the  needle, 
Pullman  developed  the  sleeping  car,  Peter  Cooper  made 
gelatine,  James  J.  Hill  without  subsidy  or  land  grant  built 
a  transcontinental  road,  John  Rockefeller  eliminated  the 
wastes  in  oil  transportation,  refining  and  distribution;  we 
should  all  be  poorer,  not  richer,  if  their  work  had  been 
prevented  as  similar  work  has  been  thwarted  and  prevented 
in  Russia. 

Nevertheless,  this  is  begging  the  question,  and  I  hold  no 
brief  to  defend  the  rich  and  their  possessions.  I  want  for 
them,  as  for  other  individuals,  the  square  deal. 

The  opportunities  for  the  worker  are  boundless,  but  what 
is  the  worker's  share  in  realizing  them,  what  the  duty  of  the 
employer,  or  of  the  corporation,  what  the  duty  of  the  state? 

As  to  the  duties  of  the  state,  it  should  practise  Scientific 
Management,  and  with  its  almost  unlimited  power  prevent 
the  greatest  evil  of  all,  fluctuating  employment  brought  about 
by  variations  in  the  costs  of  materials,  in  interest  rates  and 
in  mminurn  wages.  The  state  should  afford  to  every  worker 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  103 

state  work  at  a  minimum  wage-rate  per  hour,  and  it  should 
object  to  more  than  a  maximum  hours  of  toil  per  week.  The 
state  should  furthermore  insist  on  sanitary  and  safe  con- 
ditions. The  employee  is  selling  his  time  by  the  hour,  not 
selling  either  his  soul  or  his  future  health. 

The  corporation  should  not  employ  an  incompetent  or 
undesirable  man.  It  should  employ  no  man  who  does  not 
like  his  work.  It  should  do  its  uttermost  to  increase  the 
efficiency  of  all  the  other  items  of  cost  than  wages  so  that 
incompetence  of  management  shall  not  be  recouped  by  wage 
reduction  to  those  not  responsible  for  inefficiency.  The 
corporation  should  recognize  suitably,  and  fairly  compensate, 
any  individual  merit. 

The  worker  should  first  of  all  apply  Scientific  Management 
to  his  own  life.  He  should  engage  only  in  work  in  which  he 
is  competent,  as  otherwise  he  endangers  and  defrauds  fellow- 
workers,  his  employer  and  himself.  He  should  engage  only 
in  work  in  which  he  can  find  pleasure,  since  only  pleasurable 
work  can  be  competently  performed.  He  should  apply  to 
himself  and  to  his  own  life  Scientific  Management.  If  he  can 
increase  his  own  earning  power  20  per  cent  by  greater  indi- 
vidual efficiency,  and  lessen  his  living  cost  20  per  cent  by 
greater  home  efficiency,  he  has  increased  his  net  earnings 
many  hundred  per  cent,  since  net  earnings  are  the  margin 
between  receipts  and  expenses.  It  is  most  inefficient  to 
damn  fate  [when  the  remedy  lies  in  his  own  hands.  What- 
ever the  hours  and  rate  of  pay,  as  to  both  of  which  he  should 
have  a  voice,  he  should  work  faithfully,  competently  and  with 
interest.  In  fairness  to  himself,  to  society,  and  to  the  state, 
the  worker  should  not  engage  in  unlawful  occupation. 

The  number  of  hours  he  shall  work  a  week  is  a  matter  for 
consideration  and  bargaining  between  himself  and  his  em- 
ployers. If  he  work  a  less  number  than  is  reasonable,  he 
naturally  lessens  by  so  much  his  earning  power.  The  rate 
per  hour  is  one  that  neither  he  nor  his  employer  can  perma- 
nently determine,  but  he  can  properly  insist  on  a  guaranteed 
rate  per  hour  as  long  as  he  is  on  the  pay-roll. 


104  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

What  can  properly  be  done  in  an  hour  is  for  neither  the  man 
nor  the  employer  to  determine.  It  is  as  technical  a  problem 
as  calculating  an  eclipse.  The  share  of  the  worker  in  the  gain 
as  cost  efficiency  increases  is  a  proper  subject  for  bargaining. 
If  a  fair  and  reasonable  standard  time  is  set,  if  the  worker  is 
paid  a  bonus  for  attaining  standard  time,  if  he  is  given  full 
pay  for  all  the  time  he  saves  below  standard,  he  can  scarcely 
equitably  ask  more,  nor  can  the  employer  equitably  give 
less. 

One  more  word  of  agreement  with  Mr.  Taylor.  In  this 
work  of  Scientific  Management,  the  great  difficulties  that  we 
have  encountered  have  come  not  from  the  workingmen  but 
from  the  management;  always  from  the  managers,  never 
from  the  workers;  sometimes  from  the  managers  of  the 
workers,  not  from  the  workers  themselves.  In  one  great 
plant  into  which  I  went  we  proposed  to  introduce  a  system 
of  despatching  work  through  the  plant.  The  general  manager 
said,  "That  might  be  necessary  in  some  other  plant  but  it 
is  not  necessary  here.  We  have  that  perfected  here,  as  you 
will  see."  He  pulled  down  the  telephone  and  said,  "Give 
me  Bill.  Is  that  you,  Bill?  I  would  like  you  to  move  those 
cylinders  that  came  in  yesterday  over  into  the  cylinder  shop 
this  afternoon  about  three  o'clock."  Hanging  up  the  tele- 
phone, he  said,  "Could  anything  be  simpler  or  more  perfect 
than  that?"  It  seemed  to  work  very  nicely.  Then  we  went 
out  to  interview  Bill.  We  proposed  to  him  our  scheme  of 
despatching.  He  said,  "That  thing  might  work  in  some  other 
plant,  but  it  would  never  work  here.  It  is  too  rotten  for  any 
good  thing  to  work  in  this  plant.  Let  me  give  you  an  example. 
Here  you  see  this  track  with  this  boiler  on  it.  I  was  expecting 
to  unload  that  boiler  today  and  had  got  the  scaffolding  all 
shored  up  there  so  that  I  could  get  it  off,  and  I  had  the  gang 
of  men  collected,  the  derricks  ready,  when  I  got  a  call  on  the 
telephone.  The  general  manager  orders  me  to  move  the 
cylinders  over  into  the  cylinder  shop.  The  only  way  I  can 
move  them  is  on  this  track.  He  says  he  has  to  have  them 
this  afternoon  at  three  o'clock,  and  I  know  perfectly  he 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  105 

doesn't  need  them  until  next  Monday.  I  was  going  to  do 
it  tomorrow.  Now  I  must  move  out  this  car,  scatter  these 
men  and  try  to  get  the  cylinders  in."  And  he  added,  "It 
is  hell."  Bill  was  very  willing  and  ready  to  welcome  a 
system  of  despatching  that  would  have  helped  him  avoid 
that  kind  of  thing,  but  the  manager  was  not.  And  that  is 
almost  universally  the  trouble. 


CtnrD 


FRIDAY   AFTERNOON,    OCTOBER 
THE    THIRTEENTH 

CHAIRMAN,   CHARLES    H.   JONES 

President  of  The  Commonwealth  Shoe  and  Leather  Co.,  Boston 


SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  AND   THE 
MANAGER 

INTRODUCTION  BY  THE   CHAIRMAN 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

WE  all  know  that  Mr.  Taylor's  work  began  about 
thirty  years  ago,  and  that  it  has  been  patiently 
and  persistently  followed  ever  since.  I  believe  the 
principles  were  reduced  to  writing  some  six  or  seven  years 
ago,  but  it  is  within  the  past  year  only  that  the  public  has 
had  its  attention  called  to  Scientific  Management.  Just  now 
it  is  very  prominently  before  the  public.  This  very  large  and 
interested  gathering  attests  thoroughly  the  business  sagacity 
of  the  management  of  the  Tuck  School  in  calling  this  con- 
ference at  this  time;  in  fact,  incidentally,  it  shows  that  they 
are  qualified  for  the  duties  of  training  young  men  for  business. 

Why  is  it  that  just  at  this  moment  Scientific  Management 
seems  to  be  attracting  such  general  attention?  It  is  not 
accidental;  there  is  a  reason. 

We  all  know  of  the  primitive  conditions  of  industry  which 
existed  in  the  early  colonial  days;  there  was  scarcely  a 
mechanic  associated  with  another;  each  worked  alone.  But 
that  society  was  able  to  supply  its  meager  wants.  Then  came 
what  today  we  call  the  small  factory,  established  by  a  man 
who  came  up  from  the  ranks,  the  exceptional  man  among 
the  workmen  in  the  district  in  which  he  lived.  That  man 
knew  from  life-long  experience  the  needs  of  the  people  he 
proposed  to  supply,  and  the  methods  best  adapted  to  supply- 
ing those  needs.  That  was  the  small  personally  conducted 
institution  which  produced  all  the  useful  goods  of  this  country 
for  several  generations.  Our  scientific  friends  tell  us  that  in 

109 


no  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

some  one  department  of  that  institution  the  very  highest 
degree  of  efficiency  was  generally  attained;  that  department 
was  probably  the  department  in  which  the  head  himself  as 
laborer  had  been  trained.  He  was  able  to  get  very  creditable 
results  in  the  business  as  a  whole  without  any  of  the  modern 
theories  we  are  now  gathered  to  discuss. 

About  fifty  years  ago  the  wants  of  our  people  became  so 
great  that  the  old  way  of  production  could  not  supply  the 
demand.  In  every  crisis  of  the  world's  affairs  leaders  arise 
to  conduct  those  affairs  to  a  successful  issue.  So  it  was  in 
this  matter  of  production  fifty  years  ago.  Almost  instan- 
taneously out  of  the  ground  grew  all  these  wonderful  machines 
with  which  we  are  familiar,  and  we  were  enabled  to  increase 
our  productiveness  manyfold. 

The  population  and  wealth  of  the  country  grew,  the  wants 
of  the  people  increased,  and  enormous  aggregations  of  capital 
developed  manufacturing  communities  in  proportion  to  the 
demand.  For  a  time  they  seemed  to  have  the  idea  that 
mere  size  was  sufficient;  that  results  could  be  accomplished  in 
proportion  to  the  size  of  these  establishments.  But,  as  sug- 
gested by  the  speaker  this  morning,  it  was  speedily  ascertained 
that  such  was  not  the  case.  What  was  to  be  done?  There 
were  only  two  courses  open,  as  I  see  it.  One  was  to  find 
men  of  such  enormous  executive  ability  that  they  could  de- 
velop methods  for  handling  these  gigantic  institutions;  the 
other  was  to  use  the  vast  resources  of  the  institutions  to 
eliminate  competition  so  that  prices  could  be  maintained  and 
profits  earned  without  the  best  methods  in  production. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  many  corporations  which  took  this 
latter  course,  and  with  some  which  took  the  former.  The 
only  trouble  with  the  great  captains  of  industry  is,  that  there 
is  not  enough  of  them;  there  is  a  limit  to  the  number  of  men 
who  have  the  capacity  to  handle  these  vast  organizations;  and 
so  a  great  number  of  the  organizations  direct  their  energy  to 
the  removal  of  competition,  and  that,  to  my  mind,  is  one  of 
the  principal  causes  of  the  increase  of  high  prices  and  the 
increase  of  high  living.  Competition  is  the  only  force  ever 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  III 

known  that  compels  men  to  do  their  business  right,  and  with 
that  support  removed,  people  are  forced  to  pay  profits  on  an 
extravagant  cost.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  day  for  success  by 
these  methods  is  fast  drawing  to  a  close.  The  activities  of 
the  government  in  the  enforcement  of  the  Sherman  Law  have 
made  such  methods  unpopular  at  the  present  time.  This  is 
shown  by  the  outcry  we  hear  and  read  in  the  financial  papers 
about  the  enforced  stagnation  of  business.  The  fact  is  ignored 
that  the  rights  of  the  people  have  been  sacrificed,  and  that 
apparently  business  prosperity  cannot  be  obtained  until  these 
evils  have  been  corrected. 

It  seems  to  me  that  right  at  this  point  Scientific  Manage- 
ment looms  very  large.  It  seems  to  me  quite  possible  that 
through  the  development  of  Scientific  Management  we  shall 
find  the  way  to  increased  efficiency. 

Through  Scientific  Management,  as  explained  by  various 
speakers,  lies  the  path  for  these  great  corporations  to  bring 
themselves  up  to  the  possibilities  of  their  existence.  There 
is  no  excuse  for  the  assembling  of  their  millions  of  dollars  of 
capital  if  they  can  produce  nothing  for  the  good  of  humanity. 
What  they  must  consider  is  better  service  to  the  community. 
They  undoubtedly  have  obtained  economies  in  distribution, 
in  the  purchase  of  their  supplies,  and  so  on;  but  in  the  actual 
production  of  commodities  I  believe  those  which  have  really 
accomplished  economies  are  very  few. 

The  first  speaker  of  the  afternoon  is  a  graduate  of  Amherst, 
a  Massachusetts  boy,  an  enthusiast  in  the  athletics  of  his 
institution.  I  believe  he  came  to  Hanover  once  as  captain 
of  the  football  team,  and  although  he  went  home  with  an 
increased  respect  for  the  prowess  of  the  Dartmouth  students, 
he  is  perfectly  willing  to  come  back  again,  as  you  see.  This 
gentleman  has  been  interested  not  only  in  Scientific  Manage- 
ment but  in  all  those  forces  that  make  for  civic  uplift.  While 
he  has  had  his  eyes  ever  on  the  balance  sheet,  —  the  barometer 
of  success  in  trade,  as  was  stated  this  morning  —  I  believe 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  that  his  principal  care  and  the 
object  of  his  interest  in  Scientific  Management  is  the  promo- 


112  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

tion  of  the  welfare  of  those  he  employs.  I  believe  he  has  made 
no  claims  to  being  an  efficiency  engineer.  After  leaving  col- 
lege he  entered  an  industry  which  was  as  much  in  need  of 
efficiency  engineers,  probably,  as  any  industry  in  Massachu- 
setts; the  book  printing  and  binding  business  in  a  large  way. 
It  was  not  generally  considered  to  be  even  systematic.  And 
his  orderly  mind  set  about  arranging,  perfecting  and  improv- 
ing the  details  of  the  management  of  a  vast  business  which  he 
was  called  upon  to  superintend,  possibly  the  greatest  publish- 
ing and  printing  business  of  its  kind  in  the  country.  After 
several  years'  hard  work,  which  resulted  in  great  improve- 
ment, he  happened  to  meet  Mr.  Taylor,  and  that  happened 
which  always  has  happened  when  the  receptive  mind  properly 
trained  comes  into  the  presence  of  new  ideas.  He  absorbed 
the  Taylor  theory  and  rounded  out  and  made  complete  the 
principles  he  had  labored  to  establish.  I  know  you  will  be 
glad  to  hear  from  Mr.  Henry  P.  Kendall. 


UNSYSTEMATIZED,  SYSTEMATIZED,  AND 
SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 

BY  HENRY  P.   KENDALL 
Manager  of  the  Plimpton  Press,  Norwood,  Mass. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

/TTVHE  plan  of  this  paper  is  similar  to  one  written 
previous  to  the  hearings  before  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  protesting  against  the  general 
increase  in  freight  rates.  The  purpose  of  that  paper  was  to 
make  clear  what  was  meant  by  Scientific  Management,  a 
term  then  unfamiliar.  To  present  the  same  line  of  thought 
again  receives  its  justification  by  the  first  words  in  the 
announcement  of  this  conference,  which  states:  "Notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  much  has  been  written  concerning 
Scientific  Management  in  newspapers  and  magazines,  there 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  113 

is  no  definite  conception  in  the  minds  of  manufacturers  and 
business  men  of  its  nature." 

That  this  type  is  not  well  known  even  now  is  scarcely  to 
be  wondered  at.  Until  recently  little  had  been  written  for 
the  public  press  and  but  few  manufacturers  were  working  under 
it,  and  the  small  group  of  men  who  were  associates  of  Mr. 
Taylor,  or  kindred  spirits,  were  too  engrossed  in  their  own 
tasks  to  do  much  talking  or  writing.  It  is  my  object,  then, 
to  illumine  Scientific  Management  by  describing  it  in  terms 
of  business  with  which  we  are  all  familiar,  and  by  comparing 
some  of  its  essential  features  with  those  of  more  familiar 
types  of  management. 

Any  manufacturing  or  mercantile  business  made  up  of  differ- 
ent processes  more  or  less  interdependent  must,  to  secure  the 
best  results,  be  so  organized  that  the  separate  processes  and 
the  unit  members  within  these  will  be  brought  into  system- 
atic connection  and  operation  as  efficient  parts  of  the  whole. 
To  bring  about  and  maintain  this  is  the  function  of  the  man- 
agement. To  do  it  to  the  highest  known  degree  is  possible 
only  by  what  we  choose  to  call  the  science  of  management. 

All  types  of  management  seem  to  fall  readily  under  three 
heads  which,  for  want  of  a  more  explicit  terminology,  we  will 
call: 

I     Unsystematized  Management 
II     Systematized  Management 
III     Scientific  Management 

Of  course  no  classification  of  this  kind  is  exact.  Some 
departments  of  an  unsystematized  plant  may  equal  those  in 
a  systematized,  and  likewise  those  in  the  second  class  may 
approach  the  third  in  efficiency  in  places;  but  on  the  whole 
this  seems  a  natural  division.  The  functions  of  the  three 
types  of  management  which  will  be  compared  are: 

A  Accounting 

B  Purchasing 

C  Storage  of  Materials 

D  Execution  of  the  Work 

E  Efficiency  of  the  Workers 


114  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

I.  UNSYSTEMATIZED  MANAGEMENT.  This  classification  is 
not  made  on  a  basis  of  the  earnings  of  this  group,  nor  does  it 
mean  that  they  are  not  meeting  their  own  competition  suc- 
cessfully or  making  money.  Such  a  condition  depends  on 
the  margin  which  exists  between  their  costs  and  selling  prices. 
It  does  classify  them  on  a  basis  of  efficiency,  and  means  that 
their  costs  are  not  so  low  as  they  would  be  were  their  form 
of  management  the  systematized  or  scientific  type.  In  the 
opinion  of  the  writer  fully  70  per  cent  in  number  of  the 
plants  in  this  country  would  belong  in  this  class,  and  they 
are  easily  recognized.  I  do  not  mean  that  70  per  cent  of 
the  workmen  in  the  country  are  working  under  unsystema- 
tized  management,  but  I  think  that  70  per  cent  of  the  con- 
cerns in  number  would  come  under  this  class.  We  will  look 
at  the  first  function,  namely: 

A.  Accounting.  The  accounting  in  a  business  includes  not 
only  the  ordinary  bookkeeping,  but  the  entire  clerical  system 
which  has  to  do  with  orders,  records  and  costs.  Accounting 
is  the  only  means  by  which  the  management  is  informed 
from  time  to  time  of  the  condition  of  the  business,  the  progress 
it  is  making,  its  weak  and  strong  points,  its  selling  values  and 
costs,  and  the  efficiency  of  all  its  departments.  How  thorough, 
lucid  and  complete  the  information  is  as  shown  by  the  books 
indicates  to  some  extent  the  efficiency  of  the  management 
and  its  grasp  on  the  affairs  of  the  company.  In  the  unsys- 
tematized  plant  the  accounting  generally  consists  of  a  state- 
ment prepared  after  the  annual  or  semiannual  stock-taking, 
which  shows  (i)  Profit  and  Loss;  (2)  Assets  and  Liabilities. 
It  may  possibly  show  profit  and  loss  by  departments  or  by 
products,  but  this  last  depends  on  a  correct  method  of  ascer- 
taining costs  which  the  unsystematized  plant  seldom  has. 
Such  statements  are  merely  a  record  of  an  historical  fact  in 
most  cases.  If  the  statement  is  bad  it  is  too  late  to  remedy 
the  troubles  of  the  previous  year  because  it  shows  merely 
the  result  of  that  year.  Frequently,  due  to  imperfect  methods 
of  stock-taking,  appraising  and  compiling,  the  yearly  state- 
ment may  be  delayed;  then  the  history  it  tells  is  ancient. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  115 

One  example  from  my  own  observation  —  by  no  means 
unusual  —  will  illustrate:  A  large  concern  ended  its  fiscal 
year  on  January  31  and  did  not  know  the  result  of  its  year's 
business  until  July  17  following,  and  then  in  the  simple  form 
of  profit  and  loss,  assets  and  liabilities.  This  information 
came  nearly  six  months  after  the  close  of  the  business  year 
and  was  then  from  six  to  eighteen  months  old,  too  late 
to  do  anything  to  stop  the  leaks  of  that  year.  This  was  a 
dangerous  case,  but  a  common  one. 

Any  firm  of  accountants  can  testify  that  it  is  no  unusual 
thing  to  audit  the  books  of  a  concern  which  thinks  it  is  pros- 
perous, and  to  show  that  concern  that  it  is  insolvent.  Within 
twelve  months  the  writer  has  had  experience  with  a  busi- 
ness in  which  an  audit  was  made  of  the  books  because  the 
proprietor  thought  his  bookkeeper  had  been  dishonest.  The 
audit  showed  that  the  bookkeeper  had  been  honest  but  that 
the  concern  was  insolvent,  and  shortly  after  it  paid  its  creditors 
thirty  cents  on  the  dollar. 

A  lack  of  proper  cost  accounting  in  the  unsystematized  plant 
is  the  cause  of  losses  and  of  many  failures.  A  notorious 
example  of  this  appears  in  the  printing  industry.  In  Chicago 
one  large  department  store  makes  the  boast  that  it  secures  its 
printing  below  cost.  Its  method  is  to  send  for  estimates  on 
printed  forms  to  a  large  number  of  printers  for  every  job  of 
printing  it  has  to  give  out,  and  then  to  give  it  to  the  lowest 
bidder  on  the  assumption  that  some  one  will  have  figured 
below  cost.  It  is  reported  that  at  the  close  of  one  fiscal  year 
there  were  no  less  than  fifteen  failures  of  printers  in  the  city 
of  Boston,  and  it  would  not  be  strange  if  this  proportion 
held  throughout  the  country  in  this  particular  industry. 

So  much  importance  is  placed  upon  cost  of  printing  at  the 
present  time,  that  one  national  organization  of  employing 
printers  has  no  less  than  eight  men  employed  installing 
uniform  cost  systems  in  printing  offices  of  its  members 
throughout  the  country.  Too  little  importance  is  placed 
upon  accounting  in  the  unsystematized  plant,  and  as  increas- 
ing competition  in  various  industries  is  continually  lowering 


Il6  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

the  margin  of  profit,  the  accounting  must  become  relatively 
more  and  more  important  to  this  class  of  business. 

B.  Purchasing.  The  purchasing  of  materials,  stock  and 
miscellaneous  supplies  under  this  type  of  management  may 
be  done  by  one  man  or  by  a  purchasing  department;  but  more 
likely  this  duty  is  not  very  well  defined  and  the  purchasing 
is  done  by  a  number  of  persons,  especially  those  needing 
the  material.  Little  study  is  put  on  the  standardization  of 
materials,  and  different  kinds  of  stock  for  the  same  use  are 
often  bought.  This  tends  to  remnants  on  some  kinds,  over- 
stock and  understock  on  others.  The  buying  is  seldom  done 
on  exact  specifications,  is  not  always  even  by  written  order, 
nor  is  there  a  predetermined  maximum  and  minimum  estab- 
lished of  each  article  that  should  be  carried  in  stock.  The 
head  of  the  business  or  the  buyer  may  be  an  exceedingly  shrewd 
trader  and  may  buy  very  close  at  times;  but  he  will  not 
always  buy  the  materials  best  suited  to  the  work,  often  over- 
buys or  underbuys  for  lack  of  definite  information,  and  is 
frequently  tempted  by  bargain  lots  that  seem  cheap  but 
may  cost  more  to  use  in  the  shop. 

The  lack  of  well-organized  purchasing  results  in  work  pro- 
gressing to  a  certain  extent  through  the  shop  until  it  is  stopped 
and  occupies  space  waiting  for  some  material  which  has  been 
overlooked,  or  which  is  not  suited  for  the  purpose.  A  fairly 
successful  publishing  house  in  one  of  our  large  cities  does  its 
buying  by  the  unsystematized  fashion.  Last  year  in  making 
up  its  statement  of  profit  and  loss,  the  inventory  of  paper 
amounted  to  $20,000.  Three-fourths  of  this  paper  exists  as 
overruns,  or  odds  and  ends  of  lots  which  are  stored  in  vari- 
ous printing  offices  and  cannot  be  used  on  an  average-sized 
job.  They  are  so  scattered  they  cannot  be  combined  and 
the  make,  color,  finish  and  size  are  different  in  nearly  all 
the  lots.  When  this  house  realizes  what  this  stock  is,  it  will 
be  forced  to  write  off  nearly  $15,000  from  its  books  on  what 
it  now  considers  good  assets.  Had  the  buyer  in  that  pub- 
lishing house  standardized  his  paper  so  that  whatever  re- 
mained from  one  lot  could  readily  be  used  on  the  next,  had 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  117 

concentrated  paper  of  certain  kinds  in  one  printing  office,  and 
had  accurate  records  of  his  available  supply,  this  amount  of 
money  represented  in  stock  could  be  appreciably  less  and 
would  equal  the  original  cost  of  the  paper.  This  sort  of 
buying  is  common  among  unsystematized  concerns. 

C.  Storage  of  Materials.  Many  manufacturers  are  willing 
to  devote  unlimited  space  for  workrooms,  not  realizing  that 
the  room  for  the  proper  storage  of  materials  is  just  as  impor- 
tant and  just  as  profitable  as  that  used  for  manufacture.  In 
the  unsystematized  plant  there  may  be  a  general  storeroom, 
but  seldom  are  all  the  stores  to  be  found  in  it,  and  generally 
they  are  piled  around  almost  anywhere  and  in  any  way  that 
happened  to  be  convenient  when  received.  The  order  in 
which  such  stores  are  kept  usually  depends  upon  the  initia- 
tive of  the  men  directly  in  charge,  and  seldom  can  one  person 
assume  or  carry  out  this  responsibility. 

The  storage  of  materials  and  purchasing  are  very  closely 
related  to  each  other.  Loss  of  time  hunting  for  material  is 
the  same  whether  the  material  is  lost  in  the  ^storeroom  or  has 
not  been  purchased,  and  a  lack  of  system  in  one  department 
will  undo  attempts  at  system  in  the  others.  The  effect  of 
badly  organized  stores  is:  (i)  Loss  of  time;  work  which  should 
go  through  the  manufacturing  departments  rapidly  is  held 
up  at  different  places  waiting  for  materials  of  the  proper  kind 
or  amount,  and  this  is  a  direct  loss.  (2)  Loss  of  space;  more 
space  is  required  to  hold  stores  in  an  unsystematized  way, 
and  for  lack  of  standardization  more  stores  will  be  kept  on 
hand  than  are  required.  Space  is  also  lost  in  the  workroom 
because  work  in  process  does  not  pass  promptly  through  the 
workrooms  if  delayed  for  material.  (3)  Loss  of  capital,  because 
more  money  is  tied  up  in  stores  which  are  not  systematized 
and  properly  regulated,  and  more  money  is  tied  up  in  the 
jobs  which  represent  labor  and  material  sidetracked  through- 
out the  plant.  A  lack  of  proper  records  of  stores  is  almost 
always  to  be  found  in  the  unsystematized  plant,  and  the  man- 
agement seldom  sees  the  need  for  the  so-called  extra  work 
necessary  to  conduct  that  department  properly. 


Il8  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

D.  Execution  of  Work.  Orders  in  the  unsystematized  shop 
ar6  recorded  in  a  simple  manner,  sometimes  even  received 
and  transmitted  verbally  by  the  salesman.  These  are 
described  in  part  verbally  to  the  superintendent,  who  may 
further  enlighten  the  foreman  on  any  of  the  details  of  such 
orders.  It  is  assumed  that  the  superintendent  knows  his 
business,  that  the  foremen  know  theirs,  and  a  workman  is 
expected  to  sense  what  is  wanted  and  to  ask  questions  when 
he  is  not  sure.  In  this  way  an  attempt  is  made  to  fill  in  the 
exact  and  accurate  information  which  the  selling  end  has 
either  not  secured  or  has  not  transmitted  in  writing. 

The  "single  foremanship"  plan  prevails  where  one  fore- 
man handles  as  many  men  as  he  can.  The  number  of  men 
and  the  amount  of  work  he  can  look  out  for  is  limited  by  the 
amount  of  detail  which  he  can  carry  in  his  head  and  by  his 
physical  and  nervous  endurance.  He  gives  work  to  each 
workman  when  the  latter  has  finished  his  last  job,  and 
depends  largely  on  the  worker's  knowledge  of  what  to  do  and 
how  to  do  it.  As  questions  arise  in  the  progress  of  the  work, 
or  where  the  written  order  is  incomplete,  the  workman  goes 
to  the  foreman  who  in  turn  goes  to  the  office  for  instructions. 
Meanwhile  progress  on  the  work  stops. 

The  workman  goes  for  and  selects  his  tools  and  appliances, 
and  does  his  work  in  the  way  in  which  he  is  accustomed  to 
do  that  particular  kind  of  work.  A  difference  in  method  of 
doing  the  same  kind  of  work  by  different  workmen  and  in 
different  shops  is  often  quite  marked.  A  detailed  schedule 
of  the  average  workman's  day  in  the  unsystematized  shop, 
where  such  day's  work  is  varied,  will  show  a  surprisingly 
small  proportion  of  effective  time. 

Piece-work  is  often  used,  but  is  bound  to  be  unequal.  The 
rates,  determined  by  no  exact  method,  are  often  subject  to 
change,  and  the  output  of  such  piece-work  is  frequently  limited 
by  the  unions.  This  lack  of  planning  the  work  at  the  start, 
of  complete  instructions,  of  coordinating  the  departments 
and  routing  work  throughout  each  operation,  results  in  a 
congestion  of  unfinished  work  at  many  points.  This  slows 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  119 

down  the  output,  occupies  space  and  ties  up  capital.  The 
frequency  of  mistakes  in  rush  times  and  of  shortages  that 
must  afterwards  be  made  up,  are  not  always  called  to 
the  attention  of  the  management.  It  is  exceedingly  difficult, 
also,  in  this  type  of  plant  to  secure  a  high  quality  of  work  and 
to  maintain  it  uniformly.  Then,  too,  the  costs  fluctuate  a 
good  deal. 

E.  Efficiency  of  Workers.  The  efficiency,  as  a  whole,  is 
low  and  especially  so  in  dull  times.  It  is  uneven  and  varies 
according  to  the  executive  ability  of  different  foremen.  The 
output  of  a  man  or  machine  is  largely  determined  by  the 
opinion  of  the  foreman  and  not  by  any  exact  standard.  Piece- 
work is  not  always  fair,  and  may  be  too  high  or  too  low.  There 
is  no  special  incentive  for  a  foreman  to  cooperate  with  the 
workman.  Therefore,  while  the  majority  of  the  men  may  be 
doing  what  they  consider  a  fair  day's  work,  and  some  few  may 
be  working  efficiently,  the  efficiency  of  the  whole  is  low. 

One  example  will  illustrate  a  well-known  loss  in  efficiency. 
A  workman  in  the  hat  trade  performed  one  process  in  making 
a  hat  by  piece-work,  and  earned  not  over  $15  a  week. 
He  was  well  adapted  to  that  kind  of  work  and  could  easily 
have  earned  $25  a  week  at  that  rate  and  would  have  been 
happier  doing  his  best,  especially  as  he  needed  the  money. 
He  was  limited  to  $15  a  week  by  the  union.  It  cost  that 
firm  more  by  this  method,  because  the  floor  space  occu- 
pied by  this  part  of  the  work  could  have  turned  out  60 
per  cent  more  hats  if  the  men  had  been  rightly  selected  for 
that  kind  of  work  and  had  been  permitted  to  do  their  best. 
It  also  cost  more  because  overhead  charges  were  60  per  cent 
more  per  hat  than  was  necessary  for  that  operation.  More 
than  that,  a  workman  who  is  well  fitted  for  a  task  is  not  happy 
when  he  is  not  doing  his  best  and  earning  all  of  which  he  is 
capable.  There  is  an  economic  loss  to  each,  and  the  result 
is  bad.  Even  greater  inefficiency  than  this  may  occur  with 
day  workers. 

II.  SYSTEMATIZED  MANAGEMENT.  This  term  as  used  here 
applies  to  the  well  organized  and  managed  plants  which  make 


120  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

no  claim  to  Scientific  Management  as  such.  In  these  plants 
the  managers  are  methodical  and  systematic,  have  studied 
and  systematized  each  department  carefully  and  aimed  to 
secure  the  best  that  has  been  done  in  the  line  of  systematiz- 
ing up  to  the  present  time.  As  stated  before,  in  some  depart- 
ments of  many  such  plants  the  efficiency  is  exceedingly  good. 

A.  Accounting.    In  this  form  of  management  the  account- 
ing is  well  done.    The  books  will  show  the  condition  of  the 
business  quarterly  or  monthly,  and  in  considerable  detail. 
This  will  include  the  comparative  feature;  that  is,  for  example, 
last  year's  costs  to  date  with  this  year's  costs  for  the  same 
period,  for  a  given  department  or  product;   will  show  costs 
of  materials  and  labor,  and  the  proportion  of  overhead  charges 
that  make  up  the  cost  of  a  single  job  or  a  given  product.    Such 
results  may  even  be  charted  and  shown  in  graphic  form  to 
the  management  each  month.    Other  records  will  come  up 
weekly  or  even  daily.    As  accounting  is  the  means  by  which 
is  ascertained  the  exact  condition  of  the  business  at  a  given 
time,  the  systematized  management  recognizes  the  importance 
of  this  information.     Much  of  this  accounting,  however,  is 
done  with  the  ultimate  end  of  securing  correct  costs,  and  these 
cost  data  are  relied  upon  almost  wholly,  (i)  to  establish  the 
selling  price,  and  (2)  to  point  out  excessive  costs  and  indicate 
perhaps  where  they  may  be  reduced.    Many  believe  that 
when  their  accounting  is  well  done  they  have  a  systematized 
and  efficient  plant,  but  this  really  covers  one  phase  only  of 
the  management. 

Frequently,  too,  the  clerical  work  in  the  different  depart- 
ments is  not  a  part  of  the  general  accounting,  and  is  not  con- 
trolled by  the  ledger  accounts.  In  other  words,  the  same 
general  system  of  accounting  does  not  permeate  the  whole 
plant  and  help  to  support  itself. 

B.  Purchasing.    Materials   and    supplies    are   purchased 
through  one  man  or  department,  a  maximum  and  minimum 
generally  established,  and  a  decided  effort  made  to  purchase 
the  materials  best  suited  to  the  workrooms.    Some  analytic 
methods  are  used  in  determining  the  proper  materials,  and 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  121 

standardizing  is  done  on  the  more  important  kinds.  This 
purchasing  department  aims  to  have  a  stock  of  everything 
required,  but  buys  largely  what  it  is  asked  to.  It  does  not 
always  make  purchases  on  complete  specifications,  and  a 
lack  of  complete  standardization  increases  the  detail  of  that 
department.  So  far  as  the  clerical  system  is  developed, 
however,  it  is  generally  quite  good. 

You  will  recall  the  words  of  a  well-known  railroad  president 
some  time  ago  who  stated,  before  the  Interstate  Commerce 
hearings,  that  the  railroads  had  reached  their  ultimate  end 
of  efficiency.  It  is  interesting  in  the  light  of  this  statement 
to  note  an  example  of  efficiency  in  purchasing  by  one  system 
of  railroads,  which  has  been  acknowledged  to  me  by  railroad 
officials  as  leading  in  this  particular  department.  This  is  the 
purchasing  as  done  by  Mr.  Thorne,  who  buys  over  $40,000,000 
worth  of  materials  annually  for  the  Union  Pacific  and  South- 
ern Pacific  railroad  systems.  One  characteristic  of  Mr.  Harri- 
man  when  he  took  over  a  railroad  was  that  he  would  go  to 
any  expense  in  order  to  standardize  every  bit  of  material 
used.  Mr.  Thorne  is  the  man  who  carried  this  out.  In  a 
letter  the  other  day  he  told  me  that  in  the  standardization 
of  printed  forms  alone  he  had  saved  over  30  per  cent  in  the 
purchase  of  that  particular  commodity.  In  standardizing 
these  forms  he  reduced  them  in  number,  specifying  certain 
standard  sizes  of  paper,  type,  and  other  conditions  to  be  fol- 
lowed, and  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  his  other  purchases  his 
methods  have  secured  a  great  saving  over  those  of  competing 
roads.  , 

C.  Storage  of  Materials.  A  marked  contrast  to  the  storage 
methods  of  the  unsystematized  plant  will  be  seen  at  once.  Here 
is  an  adequate  room  in  charge  of  a  storekeeper  who  issues 
stores  only  on  requisitions,  and  is  expected  to  keep  his  place 
neat  and  orderly  and  deliver  his  stores  on  call.  A  perpetual 
list  is  kept  in  the  office  and  balanced  with  the  stores,  and  the 
balance  is  proved  by  an  actual  count  of  the  stores  once  a  year 
or  oftener.  Stores  are  partially  classified  and  standardized 
to  some  extent.  It  is  only  the  most-used  stores  that  are 


122  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

assigned  to  orders  before  actually  called  for.  The  physical 
handling  of  the  stores,  moving  them  in  and  out  of  the  store- 
room, is  done  by  the  assistants  of  the  storekeeper  and  the 
efficiency  of  this  work  and  the  orderliness  of  the  department 
depend  wholly  upon  the  kind  of  man  in  charge.  The  central 
office  can  exercise  very  little  real  control  in  this  department. 

Not  all  systematized  plants  control  work  from  a  central 
planning  station  by  writing  the  operations  for  each  process 
before  the  work  is  started;  therefore  materials  are  not  exactly 
predetermined  and  work  is  still  likely  to  be  started  before 
it  is  discovered  that  some  material  is  lacking.  Neither  are 
the  quantities  always  kept  up  automatically  through  the 
purchasing  department  by  a  predetermined  maximum  and 
minimum  of  each  kind.  Also,  it  is  general  practice  to  have 
storage  space  for  different  departments,  some  of  which  are 
not  under  control  of  the  office;  for  instance  the  miscellaneous 
supplies  used  for  the  power  department  for  repairs,  piping 
and  plumbing,  electrical  maintenance,  etc.,  may  be  scattered 
about  with  little  idea  of  order,  while  the  actual  materials  for 
use  in  manufacture  may  be  in  good  order. 

D.  Execution  of  Work.  A  complete  set  of  order-cards  for 
recording  and  transmitting  orders  is  in  use.  The  worker 
receives  a  written  order  for  the  work  he  is  to  do.  This  seldom 
takes  the  form  of  an  instruction  card  giving  him  complete 
information  for  every  move  and  every  tool.  It  is  apt  to  say 
what  the  work  is,  assuming  that  he  will  do  it  in  a  satisfactory 
manner.  Workers  almost  always  record  their  time  for  each 
job  on  a  card,  which  registers  the  labor  cost  accurately.  They 
do  not  always  register  the  time  lost  in  securing  tools,  materials 
and  further  instructions.  The  planning  of  a  job,  except  in 
plants  where  the  work  is  very  largely  repetition,  is  likely  to 
be  done  as  the  work  proceeds.  Piece-work  is  used  wherever 
possible,  and  is  considered  the  most  economical  way  of  per- 
forming a  given  operation.  It  is  the  aim  of  most  systematized 
plants  to  secure  as  much  piece-work  as  possible.  This  may 
be  unfair  for  different  kinds  of  work  to  both  employees  and 
employer. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  123 

Under  systematized  management  the  system  keeps  things 
running  smoothly,  avoids  most  of  the  mistakes  due  to  the 
lax  methods  of  the  first  kind  of  management  and  turns 
out  a  good  product.  But  a  lack  of  centralized  planning  and 
centralized  control  of  the  workers  causes  loss  of  efficiency. 

E.  Efficiency  of  the  Worker.  The  emphasis  of  systematized 
management  is  laid  on  costs,  freedom  from  errors  and  bad 
work,  and  the  greatest  output  per  man  and  per  machine  that 
can  be  secured.  The  standard  for  this  output  is  generally 
established  by  the  opinions  or  experience  of  the  bosses,  who 
have  neither  the  time  nor  the  training  to  ascertain  it  by 
exact  methods.  Great  emphasis  is  put  upon  the  installation 
of  new  and  modern  machinery,  but  there  is  not  very  much 
analytical  work  done  by  the  management  to  ascertain  whether 
the  worker  is  working  in  the  very  best  possible  way,  or  whether 
he  is  adapted  to  the  particular  job  he  is  given.  The  person 
who  has  charge  of  the  employment  considers  that  there  are 
four  classes  of  people,  —  men,  women,  boys  and  girls.  If 
the  foreman  wants  a  girl,  that  is  sufficient  information  for  the 
one  in  charge  of  the  employment,  and  a  girl  is  hired  and 
assigned.  Little  or  no  thought  is  given  to  the  question 
whether  that  particular  girl  is  the  right  one  for  the  task. 

For  instance,  in  bookbinding  there  are  different  kinds  of 
work.  Laying  gold  leaf  calls  for  a  girl  with  small  fingers  and 
a  delicate  touch.  Strength  is  not  required.  Another  opera- 
tion calls  for  a  large,  strong  girl,  who  can  easily  handle  bundles 
of  work  weighing  seven  or  eight  pounds.  In  proofreading  the 
time  reaction  of  seeing  a  word  and  grasping  its  meaning  is  a 
very  important  feature.  Other  girls  doing  inspection  must 
have  the  ability  to  concentrate  their  minds  on  one  particular 
operation.  The  different  kinds  of  work  demand  girls  selected 
with  special  reference  to  their  aptitude  for  their  particular 
work.  In  every  factory  will  be  found  workers  in  one  depart- 
ment who  cannot  successfully  do  their  work,  but  who  could 
successfully  do  work  of  another  kind.  The  scientific  selection 
of  the  worker  is  almost  unknown  in  the  systematized  plant,  and 
this  fact  alone  makes  impossible  the  highest  efficiency. 


124  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

When  I  think  over  the  psychology  of  industrial  workers,  I 
am  reminded  of  my  own  experience  hi  college.  In  the  psy- 
chological laboratory  tests  were  made  on  all  my  class.  I  had 
the  quickest  time  reaction  from  seeing  a  flash  of  light  to  mus- 
cular action  in  pressing  a  button;  I  had  the  slowest  time 
reaction  in  the  class  to  seeing  a  word,  comprehending  its 
meaning,  and  then  pressing  a  button  which  registered  the 
time  it  had  taken  me  to  see  and  comprehend  its  meaning. 
This  experiment  showed  the  reason  why  I  was  the  slowest 
reader  in  my  class  and  why  on  a  given  task  in  reading,  in 
literature  or  any  other  subject,  I  took  longer  than  any  one 
else.  While  not  a  sprinter,  my  record  for  the  fifteen-yard 
dash  has  never  been  beaten,  —  not  because  I  was  a  fast 
runner,  but  simply  because  the  time  reaction  to  muscular 
effort  enabled  me  to  get  off  more  quickly  after  the  pistol 
shot  than  any  one  else.  I  never  could  have  made  a  proof- 
reader, or  earned  my  salt  as  a  bookkeeper,  but  I  think  I 
should  have  made  a  tolerably  good  motorman. 

The  step  from  unsystematized  management  to  systematized  is 
a  difficult  one  because  it  generally  means  a  more  radical  change 
in  the  personnel  of  the  supervisory  force  than  does  the  other 
step.  The  unsystematic  manager  is  likely  to  associate  with 
him  men  of  a  similar  type.  To  do  one's  work  in  a  systematic 
way  is  not  wholly  a  matter  of  training,  and  the  foremen  and 
superintendents  in  a  thoroughly  unsystematized  plant  cannot 
always  develop  the  habit  of  working  by  means  of  system. 
The  unsystematized  plant  still  remains,  either  because  its  com- 
petitors are  in  the  same  condition  or  because  there  is  a  large 
difference  between  costs  and  selling  price,  or  because  the 
business  is  dominated  by  one  or  more  strong  characters  whose 
ability  in  other  phases  of  their  work  more  than  makes  up  for 
their  lack  in  organizing  ability.  Sooner  or  later,  however, 
this  class  of  industries  will  be  forced  to  change  or  be  eliminated. 
This  has  already  taken  place  in  a  number  of  industries,  as 
for  example,  the  manufacture  of  shoes. 

Twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  there  were  more  shoe  shops 
than  there  are  today.  The  competition  in  manufacturing 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  125 

shoes  and  the  intricacy  of  the  detail  have  made  it  impossible 
for  the  unsystematized  plant  to  grow  beyond  the  limit  of  the 
single  foremanship  plan,  with  the  result  that  only  the  systema- 
tized plants  could  increase.  The  others  were  absorbed  or 
ceased  to  be,  and  today  there  is  probably  not  an  unsystema- 
tized plant  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes.  Indeed, 
some  few  shoe  manufacturing  concerns  are  developing  Scien- 
tific Management  very  rapidly  in  all  their  departments.  And 
what  has  happened  to  the  shoe  industry  is  now  happening  to 
other  industries  which  are  in  the  transitional  period  through 
which  the  shoe  manufacturing  industry  passed  twenty  or 
twenty-five  years  ago. 

III.  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT.  A.  Accounting.  The 
accounting  under  Scientific  Management  shows  the  manufac- 
turing and  expense  accounts  for  the  year  by  thirteen  periods 
of  four  weeks  each,  instead  of  twelve  monthly  periods,  and 
at  the  expiration  of  each  of  these  periods  it  shows  the  profit 
and  loss  and  assets  and  liabilities.  These  in  the  unsystema- 
tized plant  are  shown  yearly,  and  not  always  in  the  systema- 
tized plant  are  they  shown  even  monthly.  Further,  the  group 
and  unit  costs  of  the  various  products,  the  cost  and  output  of 
each  department  and  all  expenses  which  might  be  applied 
directly  to  the  product,  are  shown  in  full,  and  the  "  compara- 
tive "  features  are  much  more  useful  because  four-week  periods 
give  a  more  equal  basis  for  comparison.  A  monthly  state- 
ment as  shown  by  the  books  in  the  systematized  accounting 
does  not  give  an  accurate  comparison  because,  for  instance, 
some  months  will  have  five  pay-rolls  where  others  have  four, 
and  the  number  of  working  days  varies  by  quite  a  per  cent 
because  there  may  be  five  Sundays  or  five  Saturday  half-days. 

In  substance,  the  general  accounts  of  the  company  are 
shown  in  more  complete  form  every  four-week  period  than  is 
shown  by  the  yearly  accounting  in  the  systematized  class.  The 
ledger  accounts  have  absolute  control  over  the  stores  depart- 
ment, over  the  quantity  and  value  of  stores,  work  and  materials 
in  process,  and  manufactured  goods;  and  as  every  department 
and  function  of  the  manufacturing  coordinates  with  every 


126  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

other,  the  accounting  becomes  a  part  of  the  very  bone  and 
fiber  of  the  manufacturing. 

One  radical  difference  in  point  of  view  is  that  the  ascer- 
taining of  costs  does  not  have  a  special  system  installed  for 
just  that  purpose,  and  the  ascertaining  of  costs  is  not  the  end 
sought.  Under  Scientific  Management  costs  come  as  a  by- 
product of  the  means  used  for  increasing  efficiency.  For 
instance,  a  ticket  made  up  in  the  central  planning  depart- 
ment, when  combined  with  the  instruction  card,  serves  to 
plan  the  work  in  advance;  then  it  is  used  to  control  the  order 
of  work  by  being  placed  on  a  bulletin  board;  then  it  gives  the 
workman  his  particular  piece  of  work  to  do  with  the  instruc- 
tions how  to  do  it.  On  this  ticket  is  stamped  the  time  at 
which  the  work  is  begun  and  when  it  ends.  This  same  ticket 
then  serves  to  check  off  the  progress  of  the  work  on  the  route- 
sheet.  Then  it  goes  to  the  accounting  department  from  which 
the  man's  pay  is  made  up.  It  is  then  redistributed  and 
furnishes  the  labor  cost  of  the  particular  operation  on  the 
cost-sheet  of  the  job.  From  cost-sheets  similar  to  this  are 
summarized  not  only  the  cost  on  all  jobs,  but  department 
expenses  and  charges  which  appear  in  each  four-week  period 
statement. 

In  other  words,  the  mechanism  used  under  systematized  man- 
agement for  ascertaining  costs  performs  little  other  work; 
under  Scientific  Management  it  has  performed  its  part  in 
producing  work,  and  from  it,  as  a  by-product,  so  to  speak, 
come  the  costs. 

The  ascertaining  of  costs  by  this  method  is  done  with  but 
little  more  expense  than  is  necessary  for  handling  the  regular 
work  of  operation.  Too  much  emphasis  cannot  be  placed 
on  the  value  of  the  comparative  feature  in  accounting.  Com- 
parisons are  a  great  spur  to  increased  efficiency,  and  this  fact 
is  recognized  as  well  in  the  systematized  management.  For 
example:  a  certain  group  of  department  stores,  each  doing  a 
business  in  a  different  city  and  non-competitive,  have  found 
such  good  results  from  uniform  accounting  methods  and  the 
information  that  comes  from  comparison,  that  they  jointly 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  127 

employ  an  accountant  who  collects  the  monthly  reports  in 
detail  from  these  stores  so  as  to  make  a  comparison  byltems, 
and  then  prints  these  data  for  the  use  of  the  management  of 
each'  store. 

For  instance,  one  manager  finds  that  Department  A  in  his 
store  did  $50,000  worth  of  business  the  preceding  month,  had 
$35,000  worth  of  stock  on  hand,  and  is  shown  in  detail  what 
the  labor  and  other  expense  items  of  that  department  were. 
He  sees  that  another  store  did  $55,000  worth  of  business  in 
Department  A  and  had  a  stock  of  but  $20,000.  He  immedi- 
ately summons  his  buyer  and  informs  him  of  the  result  of 
this  comparison,  and  asks  why  he  cannot  do  as  well  as  the 
buyer  in  the  other  store  and  release  $15,000  of  capital  now 
tied  up  in  stock.  The  knowledge  of  what  can  be  done  and 
is  done  by  the  other  store  is  often  sufficient  stimulus  in  itself 
to  cause  to  be  accomplished  what  otherwise  would  not  be 
considered  possible. 

The  expense  and  frequently  the  shutdowns  for  the  purpose 
of  the  annual  stock-taking  are  eliminated  under  Scientific 
Management,  because  the  accounting  absolutely  controls  the 
movement  of  materials  in  and  out  of  the  stores  department, 
so  its  records  show  at  all  times  the  amount  in  stores  and  this 
value  can  be  ascertained  when  desired.  The  work  of  proving 
the  items  of  stores  is  done  continuously,  and  the  days,  which 
often  become  weeks  and  months,  that  elapse  before  even 
large  and  well-organized  concerns  get  the  results  of  their  stock- 
taking become  a  thing  of  the  past.  One  large  concern  which 
is  a  customer  in  a  business  in  which  I  am  interested  finished 
its  year  of  stock-taking  January  i,  and  it  was  early  in 
August  of  this  year  before  it  got  the  results  and  knew  how 
much  stock  it  had  on  hand  January  i.  The  same  will  apply 
to  the  amount  of  materials  and  labor  in  process,  which 
the  systematized  management  finds  even  a  harder  problem  to 
handle,  and  also  to  the  value  of  manufactured  goods. 

B.  Purchasing.  Scientific  Management  is  not  satisfied 
merely  to  have  plenty  of  materials  on  hand  when  wanted,  to 
roughly  standardize  the  principal  items  of  stock  used  and  to 


128  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

buy  at  the  market  rate,  but  demands  that  all  materials  be 
carefully  studied  with  reference  to  — 

First.    The  greatest  adaptability  to  the  work. 

Second.    Quality  and  uniformity. 

Third.    Price. 

Fourth.  Determination  of  the  proper  maximum  and  mini- 
mum that  shall  be  carried,  so  that  the  stores  department  may 
automatically  govern  materials  and  supplies  which  should 
always  be  on  hand. 

When  this  has  been  done,  care  is  taken  to  make  all  pur- 
chases on  detailed  specifications.  The  importance  of  using 
materials  best  suited  to  the  work  and  which  are  uniform  in 
quality  and  by  standardization  reduced  to  the  smallest  vari- 
ety, is  not  sufficiently  appreciated  by  the  buyer  in  even  the 
systematized  plant. 

For  example,  a  manufacturer  of  razors  using  a  thin  blade 
could  not  secure  a  steel  which  would  always  act  alike  and 
produce  a  uniform  result  with  uniform  treatment.  He  em- 
ployed a  steel  expert  of  reputation  to  assist  him.  This  expert 
purchased  the  best  razors  that  different  barbers  had,  analyzed 
them  chemically  and  microscopically  and,  as  every  man  who 
uses  a  razor  might  guess,  found  very  great  variation  even  in 
the  same  makes.  In  fact,  he  satisfied  himself  that  no  razor 
manufacturer,  however  well-systematized  his  plant  was,  had 
ever  scientifically  determined  the  best  steel,  or  had  purchased 
it  on  a  formula  that  would  standardize  this  material.  As  a 
result,  all  these  years  the  buying  of  a  razor  had  been  a  lottery. 

After  many  tests  this  expert  secured  from  various  steel 
manufacturers  samples  of  steel  on  their  formulae  and  his 
own,  and  he  finally  developed  a  formula  that  would  give  the 
best  razor  steel  known  and  maintain  it  uniform.  As  a  result 
of  this  method  of  buying  this  manufacturer  stood  alone  among 
the  razor  producers  of  the  country  in  ability  to  produce  razor 
blades  of  standard  quality.  If  all  his  methods  are  as  scientific 
as  this,  it  is  doubtful  whether  his  competitors  will  ever  over- 
take the  lead  he  has  secured.  This  is  not  an  extreme  example 
by  any  means. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  129 

Another  illustration  of  the  standardizing  of  materials.  In 
studying  the  supplies  of  a  business  it  was  found  that  there 
were  twelve  kinds  of  wrapping  paper  regularly  used  and  an 
investment  of  $2,500  was  needed  to  carry  a  sufficient  amount. 
This  was  standardized  and  now  the  twelve  kinds  of  paper 
have  been  reduced  to  four,  with  a  saving  of  $1,000  in  the 
stock,  60  per  cent  in  the  storage  space  occupied,  and  the 
available  worth  of  this  paper  for  the  demands  that  may  be 
made  on  it  is  20  per  cent  more  than  what  it  was  formerly. 
This  illustrates  the  saving  made  on  but  one  class  of  material 
used  in  a  factory  where  standardization  is  being  worked  out. 

Such  methods  of  purchasing  compel  the  purchasing  depart- 
ment to  be  intimately  associated  with  the  working  of  the 
materials  through  manufacture,  and  result  in  the  following: 

First.  Uniform  material  best  adapted  to  the  work  saves 
labor  and  delay  in  workrooms. 

Second.  Minimum  of  kinds  and  sizes  necessary  to  be 
carried. 

Third.  Storage  space  saved. 

Fourth.  Lower  costs  through  buying  in  larger  lots. 

C.  Storage  of  Materials.  The  physical  aspects  of  a  store- 
room under  Scientific  Management  do  not  differ  greatly  from 
those  in  the  systematized.  A  proper  means  of  holding  or  piling 
the  stores,  laid  out  in  an  orderly  fashion,  is  provided.  To 
avoid  confusion  in  a  varied  terminology,  mnemonic  symbols 
are  used  to  designate  the  different  kinds  of  stores.  The  maxi- 
mum and  minimum  mentioned  above  are  determined  for  each 
kind,  and  kept  on  the  ledger  sheets  in  the  central  planning 
room.  The  bookkeeping  for  the  stores  is  not  carried  on  in 
the  storeroom,  the  storeroom  force  simply  acting  on  orders. 
The  location  of  the  materials  is  also  indicated  on  the  ledger 
sheets,  or,  as  they  are  known,  the  balance  of  stores  sheets. 

The  storeroom  in  the  systematized  plant  is  not  likely  to  carry 
all  the  materials  and  supplies  used  in  the  entire  plant.  The 
engine-room,  plumbing  and  construction  supplies  may  be 
carried  in  places  provided  for  them,  but  not  controlled  as 
other  materials  are.  Stationery  and  office  forms  and  supplies 


130  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

may  be  carried  somewhere  else  under  a  different  system. 
Even  in  well-systematized  plants  such  items  as  are  not  con- 
sidered a  part  of  the  general  stores  system  cause  more  or  less 
trouble  by  being  used  up  unexpectedly. 

Under  Scientific  Management  it  is  not  sufficient,  when 
materials  are  required,  to  send  a  requisition  to  the  stores 
department,  but  all  orders  or  work  which  require  material 
have  the  items  looked  up  and  assigned  to  the  specific  orders 
by  the  balance  of  stores  clerks,  and  this  material  when  as- 
signed to  a  given  order  is  not  available  for  another  order  which 
may  follow.  This  is  done  before  the  materials  are  required 
for  use,  and  this  method  serves  as  advance  warning  to  the 
stores  clerks  if  an  unexpected  demand  for  a  particular  material 
is  likely  to  occur.  Quick  action  is  then  possible  in  purchasing 
more. 

The  work  of  moving  materials  into  the  stores  department 
and  moving  them  from  the  stores  department  to  the  particular 
place  where  they  are  to  be  used,  becomes  a  function  of  the 
planning  of  the  work,  and  of  the  routing  of  the  work,  and  the 
workman  who  is  to  use  them  should  not  be  delayed  or  have 
to  give  a  thought  to  the  materials  which  he  needs  for  his  next 
job.  They  are  moved  in  the  right  condition  for  his  use  to 
the  point  where  he  can  use  them  to  the  best  advantage.  The 
time  which  the  workman  spends  looking  for  or  waiting  for 
his  materials  can  be  better  spent  in  effective  work.  The 
proper  working  of  the  stores  department  in  many  industries, 
and  especially  in  mercantile  establishments,  is  a  very  impor- 
tant one. 

D.  Execution  of  Work.  The  theory  of  the  proper  execution 
of  work  is  that  it  should  be  planned  completely  before  a  single 
move  is  made,  —  that  a  route-sheet  which  will  show  the  names 
and  order  of  all  the  operations  which  are  to  be  performed 
should  be  made  out  and  that  instruction  cards  should  be 
clearly  written  for  each  operation.  Requisitions  on  the  stores 
department  showing  the  kind  and  quality  of  the  materials 
and  where  they  should  be  moved,  and  lists  of  proper  tools  for 
doing  the  work  in  the  best  way,  should  be  made  up  for  each 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  131 

operation,  and  then  by  time-study  the  very  best  method 
and  apparatus  for  performing  each  operation  is  determined 
in  advance,  and  becomes  a  part  of  the  instruction. 

By  this  means  the  order  and  assignment  of  all  work,  or 
routing  as  it  is  called,  should  be  conducted  by  the  central 
planning  or  routing  department.  This  brings  the  control  of 
all  operations  in  the  plant,  the  progress  and  order  of  the  work, 
back  to  the  central  point.  Information  which  even  in  the 
systematized  plant  is  supposed  to  be  furnished  by  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  workman  or  the  gang-boss  or  foreman,  is  brought 
back  to  the  planning  room  and  becomes  a  part  of  the  instruc- 
tion card. 

In  many  unsystematized  plants  no  attempt  is  made  to  change 
the  method  by  which  the  workman  performs  his  operations. 
Plenty  of  time  and  money  may  be  spent  on  special  machinery, 
but  when  that  is  installed  very  little  time  is  spent  in  a  close 
analytical  study  of  the  time  elements  and  motions  involved 
in  operating,  in  order  to  make  it  possible  for  the  workman  to 
work  in  the  easiest  and  best  way  and  to  furnish  a  fair  basis 
of  remuneration. 

When  the  analytical  study  has  been  made,  the  probable 
time  of  operation  determined,  and  a  sufficient  incentive  has 
been  added  in  the  shape  of  a  bonus  for  performing  the  work 
in  the  given  time  and  in  the  way  specified,  then  work  can  be 
much  more  accurately  controlled  from  the  central  planning 
room  because  it  is  likely  to  be  done  in  approximately  the  time 
determined  and  without  lagging. 

By  functional  foremanship,  which  has  been  described  by 
previous  speakers,  the  management  brings  to  bear  on  each 
phase  of  the  work  a  man  particularly  fitted  by  selection, 
training  and  experience  to  assist  in  performing  that  part  of 
the  work.  His  function  is  to  assist  the  worker  and  cooperate 
with  him  to  enable  him  to  increase  his  earning  capacity  by 
eliminating  trouble  or  delays  or  wrong  methods.  Even  in 
the  well-managed  systematized  plant  the  manager  will  tell 
you  that  the  weak  point  in  his  business  is  the  inability  to 
secure  good  foremen,  or  good  superintendents.  He  demands: 


132  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

First.  That  a  foreman  shall  know  all  about  the  work  which 
is  done  in  his  department. 

Second.    That  he  be  a  good  disciplinarian. 

Third.  That  he  have  the  ability  to  crowd  work  through 
and  get  it  out  quickly. 

Fourth.    That  he  be  cautious  and  accurate. 

Fifth.  That  he  be  able  to  keep  account  of  innumerable 
details. 

To  find  all  these  qualities  combined  successfully  in  one  man 
is  exceedingly  difficult,  to  train  such  men  is  also  difficult,  and 
to  secure  them  by  natural  selection  and  "survival  of  the 
fittest "  takes  too  long;  but  to  train  men  for  functional  fore- 
manship  by  selecting  the  best  man  fitted  to  do  the  particu- 
lar function  and  then  training  him  in  that,  is  simply  one 
kind  of  division  of  labor  which  has  marked  the  progress  of 
civilization. 

The  execution  of  work  which  is  largely  repetition,  where 
the  individual  processes  are  simple,  reaches  a  very  high  effi- 
ciency in  many  systematized  plants.  The  difficulties  in  secur- 
ing efficiency  increase  as  the  work  becomes  more  varied  and 
with  less  proportion  of  it  repeat-work,  and  in  proportion  as 
these  difficulties  increase  ordinary  systems  fail  to  produce 
results  in  more  intricate  work.  This  can  be  attained,  how- 
ever, by  the  central  planning  room  from  the  analysis  and 
time-study  which  is  put  into  all  operations  of  work  and 
reduced  to  instruction  cards. 

E.  Efficiency  of  the  Worker.  On  many  simple  operations  in 
manufacturing,  piece-work  has  always  been  considered  the 
most  efficient  method  of  securing  output  and  low  costs,  and 
it  is  true  that  where  the  remuneration  is  a  just  one  and  when 
the  employee  is  supplied  with  proper  materials  and  works  to 
the  best  advantage,  this  method  of  performing  work  approaches 
very  close  to  that  of  Scientific  Management;  but  such  condi- 
tions of  piece-work  are  the  ideal  rather  than  the  usual.  As 
stated  above  and  emphasized  by  previous  speakers,  piece- 
work with  prices  based  on  the  snap  judgment  of  a  foreman  or 
by  an  imperfect  test  of  a  single  worker,  is  not  the  correct 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  133 

method  to  secure  the  greatest  efficiency.  Besides  this,  there 
are  many  kinds  of  work  which  are  not  adapted  to  piece-work. 
Under  Scientific  Management  the  efficiency  of  the  worker  and 
machine  depends  on  five  other  conditions,  after  assuming  that 
the  parts  of  the  management  which  have  to  do  with  pur- 
chasing, storage  of  materials,  etc.,  are  well  performed.  These 
conditions  are: 

First.    Analysis  and  synthesis  of  the  elements  of  operation. 

Second.    Scientific  selection  of  the  worker. 

Third.    Training  of  the  worker. 

Fourth.    Proper  tools  and  equipment. 

Fifth.    Proper  incentive. 

First.  The  first  condition  on  which  the  efficiency  of  the 
worker  depends  is  that  the  management  shall  analyze  care- 
fully and  thoroughly  every  operation  into  its  ultimate  elements; 
shall  then  reconstruct  those  elements  in  their  proper  sequence, 
eliminating  those  which  are  unnecessary  or  those  which  are 
bad,  and  reducing  the  form  to  a  written  instruction  card  for 
him  to  follow;  the  time  elements  having  been  determined  and 
becoming  a  part  of  the  instruction  card.  It  is  interesting  to 
see  what  develops  when  one  really  begins  to  study  a  seemingly 
simple  operation.  The  motion-study  alone  of  bricklaying 
makes  possible  the  elimination  of  sixteen  unnecessary  mo- 
tions. The  change  in  location  of  a  machine  which  was  oper- 
ated by  a  girl  who  sat  with  her  back  to  an  aisle  where 
heavy  trucking  was  done  caused  an  increase  of  25  per  cent 
in  her  work.  Every  time  she  heard  a  truck  approaching  she 
involuntarily  shuddered,  probably  wondering  if  the  truck 
would  strike  her.  Removing  this  operator  to  a  quiet  corner 
caused  the  increase. 

One  factory  doing  light  manufacturing  has  lately  put  some 
time  into  studying  what  have  always  been  considered  simple 
operations.  In  certain  places  a  differently  shaped  receptacle 
was  made  for  the  articles  on  which  work  was  being  done, 
bringing  the  pieces  within  six  inches  of  the  left  hand,  whereas 
for  years  before  the  worker  had  had  to  reach  for  these  and 
occasionally  stop  work  to  bring  the  articles  farthest  away 


134  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

within  reach  with  a  sort  of  hoe.  Other  operations  in  this 
plant  have  been  simplified  by  changing  the  position  of  some 
workers  so  that  the  porter  who  supplies  materials  can  do 
so  without  interrupting  and  causing  a  stop  in  the  work  several 
times  a  day.  A  study  of  extra  steps  and  little  delays  by  an 
intelligent  observer  is  a  necessary  work  before  the  greatest 
efficiency  can  be  secured.  When  all  these  analyses  have  been 
reduced  to  writing,  a  study  of  the  type  best  fitted  to  do  this 
work  is  made. 

Second.  Scientific  Selection  of  the  Worker.  The  type  of 
worker  who  physically  and  mentally  is  best  fitted  to  do  a 
kind  of  work  must  be  selected  after  a  careful  analysis  of  that 
class  of  operations  made  with  reference  to  the  physiological 
and  mental  differences  in  human  beings.  The  difference  in 
output  and  quality  of  work  has  been  found  to  vary  as  much 
as  40  per  cent  or  50  per  cent  in  a  group  of  men  or  women 
engaged  on  the  same  kind  of  work.  As  they  were  of  ap- 
parently equal  intelligence  and  education,  this  could  be 
explained  only  by  the  physiological  and  mental  differences. 
As  a  result  of  tune-study  and  motion-study  of  various  groups 
of  operations  in  one  large  manufacturing  plant,  it  has  been 
found  that  there  are  so  many  workers  performing  a  kind  of 
work  to  which  they  are  not  suited,  but  who  might  excel  in 
another  kind  of  work,  that  the  management  has  laid  plans  to 
establish  classes  to  instruct  workers  to  do  another  kind  of 
work  better  adapted  to  their  capacities. 

Of  two  different  departments,  A  and  B,  for  instance  — 
A  containing  thirty  girls  and  B  twenty  — it  has  been  found 
that  over  20  per  cent  in  A  are  unfitted  for  that  kind  of  work, 
but  would  be  fitted  for  work  in  B,  and  vice  versa.  A  scientific 
selection  of  the  workers  is  possible  only  from  the  analysis  of 
operations.  The  effectiveness  of  this  will  be  greater  when 
the  principles  of  the  psychology  of  working  and  kinds  of  work 
are  better  understood  by  industrial  managers. 

The  psychology  of  advertising  has  lately  been  coming  to 
the  front.  The  psychology  of  industrial  workers  is  still  a 
great  field  for  research.  The  vocational  schools  will  not 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  135 

perform  their  true  function  properly  until  they  come  to  a 
better  knowledge  psychologically  of  the  mental  and  physi- 
cal requirements  for  different  kinds  of  work,  and  are  able 
by  tests  to  determine  in  which  their  pupils  are  likely  to  be 
successes  or  failures. 

Scientific  selection  of  the  workmen  is  but  a  part;  the  scien- 
tific selection  of  foremen,  of  superintendents  and  managers  is 
just  as  important.  How  frequently  one  sees  a  man  struggling 
with  the  details  of  an  office  or  with  the  wear  and  tear  of  execu- 
tive work,  on  the  verge  of  nervous  prostration,  when  that 
man  is  wholly  unfitted  for  that  kind  of  work  and  his  attempts 
successfully  to  perform  it  result  in  his  undoing.  If  managers 
themselves  knew  how  to  judge  a  man's  fitness  for  his  work  and 
were  more  observing,  there  would  be  many  less  breakdowns 
and  physical  wrecks  than  there  are  now. 

Third.  Training  of  the  Worker.  Having  first  earned  out 
the  study  of  the  operation  which  has  pointed  the  way  to  the 
proper  selection  of  the  worker,  it  becomes  the  duty  to  train 
the  worker  to  do  the  work  in  the  way  which  the  result  of  the 
analysis  has  shown  to  be  the  best  way.  This  will  be  accom- 
plished by  a  functional  foreman  whose  duty  it  is  to  train  the 
workmen  and  help  them  on  each  job  to  get  started  right.  If 
they  fail  to  do  the  task  in  the  time  fixed  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
functional  foreman  to  find  out  why  they  have  failed,  and  to 
help  them  do  the  work  as  it  should  have  been  done.  This  is 
a  wide  departure  from  the  old  school,  which  assumes  that 
the  journeyman  has  sufficient  knowledge  to  do  his  own  work 
in  the  most  efficient  manner.  In  the  training  of  workmen  it 
is  interesting  to  see  how  they  develop  through  an  aroused 
interest  and  cooperation  of  those  over  them. 

Fourth.  Proper  Tools  and  Equipment.  The  fourth  condi- 
tion is  that  the  worker  be  supplied  with  the  best  tools  and 
just  the  ones  needed  for  the  particular  operation,  and  supplied 
when  needed;  that  he  be  given  the  best  machine,  main- 
tained in  first-class  condition,  so  that  machine,  belt  and  tool 
failures  will  be  reduced  to  the  minimum.  To  maintain  the 
machinery,  etc.,  in  this  condition  is  a  duty  of  the  manage- 


136  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

ment,  and  Scientific  Management  provides  the  means  with 
which  to  do  this. 

Fifth.  Proper  Incentive.  Sufficient  incentive  should  be 
given  the  worker  to  perform  the  operation  or  the  task  that  has 
been  set  in  the  given  time.  To  make  this  possible  for  the 
worker,  functional  foremanship  is  necessary  and  the  principal 
object  of  such  functional  foreman  is  to  assist  the  worker  and 
eliminate  trouble  or  delay.  The  functional  foreman  trained 
to  his  specialty  will  do  this  more  effectively  than  the  old- 
fashioned  all-around  foreman.  Examples  have  been  given 
by  previous  speakers  of  relative  increase  in  efficiency  of  the 
worker  as  a  result  of  Scientific  Management.  Of  course  such 
relative  increases  in  output  cannot  be  considered  universal. 
Certain  machines  are  not  mechanically  able  to  run  at  double 
or  triple  their  former  speeds,  but  Scientific  Management  tends 
to  lessen  the  numberless  little  delays  which  the  condition  of 
the  machine,  of  the  material  to  be  worked  upon,  or  the  in- 
structions to  the  worker,  may  have  been  responsible  for. 

It  must  be  to  the  financial  interest  of  the  worker  to  be 
industrious,  and  it  has  been  shown  to  be  for  the  interest  of 
the  management  to  do  everything  to  make  possible  and 
profitable  this  increased  industry  of  the  worker,  thereby 
gaining  a  more  uniform  output,  and  an  output  per  man  or 
machine  which  is  maintained  more  uniformly  in  dull  or  busy 
times. 

There  is  another  feature  which  is  of  interest;  that  is,  if  the 
worker  engaged  on  the  task  and  bonus  does  not  receive  his 
materials  promptly  and  on  time,  if  his  machine  is  not  in  the 
condition  it  should  be,  or  there  are  other  avoidable  delays, 
the  worker  has  sufficient  interest  in  the  probable  loss  of  his 
bonus  to  make  a  serious  kick,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
gang-boss  to  immediately  right  this  trouble.  Therefore, 
the  workman  and  the  boss  are  together  demanding  of  the 
management  that  as  nearly  as  possible  perfect  working 
conditions  be  maintained. 

CONCLUSION.  The  central  planning  and  control  of  work 
which  is  such  a  vital  part  in  Scientific  Management  is  not 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  137 

developed  to  the  same  degree  in  the  systematized.  In  systema- 
tized plants  where  complete  planning  is  attempted,  however, 
the  instructions  and  orders  particularize  what  is  to  be  done 
rather  than  how  it  is  to  be  done. 

In  the  systematized  plant  the  system  in  one  department  has 
been  planned  especially  for  that  department,  and  is  not  a 
part  of  the  system  framework  which  pervades  the  whole,  as 
in  Scientific  Management,  and  it  is  a  constant  fight  to  main- 
tain such  independent  systems  and  especially  to  change  and 
modify  them  with  changed  conditions  or  the  increased  growth 
of  the  business. 

In  closing  let  us  see  the  effects  of  this  type  of  management 
in  general  on  the  plant,  the  product,  the  worker  and  the 
management. 

Plant.  Scientific  Management  furnishes  the  machinery  for 
maintaining  the  plant  in  better  condition  by  centralizing  the 
control,  by  the  use  of  such  devices  as  the  standing  order  file 
in  which  are  collected  and  reduced  to  writing  and  properly 
indexed  the  practices  and  rules  of  the  company.  From  it, 
by  listing  and  making  a  certain  program  of  things  to  be  done, 
—  the  departments,  machinery,  shafting,  drains,  gutters, 
etc.,  to  be  inspected  —  this  program  can  be  handled  month 
after  month  by  routine  in  a  manner  which  the  management 
has  carefully  predetermined.  To  attend  to  the  maintenance 
of  a  plant  in  this  way  is  working  to  prevent  delay  and  expense 
rather  than  cure  it  afterwards.  For  instance,  eliminating  de- 
lays due  to  belt  failures,  shaft-boxes  which  have  been  over- 
looked and  run  dry,  and  indefinite  inspection  of  premises, 
pipe  lines,  traps,  etc.,  tends  to  save  expense  by  preventing 
trouble. 

Product.  The  product  of  such  a  plant  should  be  more 
uniformly  even,  and  there  should  be  fewer  mistakes  and  less 
inferior  work.  Once  a  standard  is  set  for  each  operation, 
that  standard  can  be  maintained.  It  costs  little  more  to 
maintain  a  high  standard  under  these  conditions  than  a  low 
one  under  old  conditions. 

The  Worker.    The  condition  of  a  worker's  mind  has  a  very 


138  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

large  effect  on  his  physical  being.  There  is  a  psychological 
effect  on  a  worker  in  having  the  work  divided  into  definite 
tasks,  each  one  having  its  goal  in  sight  and  sustaining  effort 
to  that  time.  The  piece-workers  in  one  plant  in  which  I  am 
interested  were  interviewed  by  a  woman  journalist  at  the  time 
so  much  publicity  was  given  to  Scientific  Management  by  the 
hearings  before  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and 
she  asked  them  how  they  liked  the  task  and  bonus.  They 
said  they  didn't  know  why  it  was,  but  they  liked  it;  they 
were  earning  more.  But  that  was  not  all:  the  piece-work 
flowing  to  them  in  an  unending  stream  had  been  discouraging; 
there  was  something  they  could  not  understand,  but  when  it 
was  broken  up  into  definite  lots  they  liked  it  much  [better. 
You  can  discourage  any  man  by  setting  him  to  work  with  a 
pick  and  shovel  and  telling  him  to  shovel  away  a  hill.  He 
knows  he  can  never  get  it  done,  but  if  you  say;  "Here,  you 
shovel  so  many  tip-carts  full  in  a  day,  or  in  a  given  time, 
and  you  will  have  a  certain  percentage  of  increase  of  pay 
for  that  time,"  you  have  changed  the  point  of  view,  and  that 
man  every  time  he  finishes  a  tip-cart  full  has  accomplished 
a  definite  task.  His  effort  is  sustained  for  that  time,  and  he 
is  going  to  be  able  to  sustain  that  effort  in  the  future.  That 
is  one  reason  why  profit-sharing  among  the  working  classes  is 
almost  an  absolute  failure  so  far  as  increased  efficiency  is  con- 
cerned; the  time  of  sustained  effort  for  a  year  or  six  months 
is  too  long.  Neither  can  a  worker  do  his  best  work  who  is 
nagged  by  a  foreman,  who  has  been  given  insufficient  instruc- 
tions and  is  fearful  lest  he  is  doing  his  work  wrong,  and  who, 
having  made  a  mistake,  is  jumped  on,  oftentimes  perhaps 
unjustly.  He  is  not  in  a  frame  of  mind  to  do  his  best  work 
if  he  wishes  to. 

In  one  factory  there  was  great  difficulty  in  keeping  the 
women  workers  in  a  certain  department.  They  were  either 
unwilling  to  continue  to  work  or  frequently  gave  out,  and  it 
was  a  puzzle  for  some  time  to  find  out  what  the  trouble  was. 
When  the  analysis  and  time-study  were  put  into  this  depart- 
ment, it  was  found  that  part  of  the  trouble  was  due  to  the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  139 

fact  that  they  were  not  earning  so  much  as  workers  in  adjacent 
departments,  that  they  were  nagged  by  the  foreman  who  did 
not  understand  how  to  handle  help,  and  that  they  were  work- 
ing at  a  disadvantage  in  the  arrangement  of  their  work  places. 
The  first  step  was  to  fit  up  their  places  so  they  could  work 
to  the  best  advantage.  A  time-study  then  showed  that  by 
working  according  to  instructions  they  could  easily  do  50 
per  cent  more  work.  To  insure  the  work  being  well  done, 
one  of  the  best  girls  was  selected  as  an  inspector  and  given 
charge  of  their  work,  the  foreman  having  nothing  to  do  with 
them.  A  few  of  the  girls  were  tried  on  the  extra  work,  — 
working  under  the  constant  instruction  of  the  time-study 
man  and  being  paid  an  additional  amount. 

All  the  girls  who  were  physically  fitted  for  this  kind  of  work 
tried  the  extra  amount,  which  they  did  easily.  The  result 
of  the  extra  pay,  freedom  from  the  nagging  of  the  foreman, 
and  easier  working  conditions,  immediately  stopped  the  diffi- 
culty in  keeping  workers  in  this  department.  One  or  two  of 
these  workers,  according  to  the  report  of  the  factory  nurse, 
have  gained  weight  since  this  change  was  made. 

After  this  had  been  in  effect  for  a  while,  the  constant  request 
of  one  girl  that  she  be  allowed  to  undertake  one-third  more 
work,  or  double  the  original  amount,  was  granted  with  the 
approval  of  the  factory  nurse,  who  watched  her  closely.  This 
was  a  task  not  set  by  time-study,  but  one  which  the  girl 
herself  thought  she  could  undertake.  She  found,  however, 
that  it  was  too  much  and  gave  it  up  voluntarily,  but  she  is 
still  doing  50  per  cent  more  work  than  she  was  originally. 
She  is  a  girl  well  fitted  for  the  kind  of  work  and  for  her  a 
larger  task  could  be  given,  but  tasks  are  set  with  the  idea  of 
the  average  worker  who  is  first  selected  for  the  particular 
kind  of  work.  It  must  be  considered  that  the  effect  of  task 
and  bonus  work  under  the  proper  conditions  tends  to  greater 
industry,  better  discipline,  a  happier  disposition  and  greater 
interest  in  work  on  the  part  of  the  workers.  Greater  regu- 
larity, greater  accuracy  and  neatness  must  and  do  have  an 
influence  on  health  and  character. 


140  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Management.  It  is  probable  that  the  point  of  view  of 
heads  of  departments  and  those  responsible  for  the  manage- 
ment becomes  quite  as  much  changed  as  that  of  the  workers. 
When  mistakes  are  made  the  responsibility  is  fixed  and  the 
management  cannot  dodge  the  fact.  A  manager  also  realizes 
as  never  before  the  value  that  must  be  placed  on  analysis. 
As  Mr.  Taylor  once  said:  "Thought  under  Scientific  Manage- 
ment is  75  per  cent  analysis  and  25  per  cent  common  sense." 

When  a  seemingly  difficult  operation  has  been  analyzed 
to  its  last  detail,  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  reconstruct  it  on  the 
proper  lines.  There  is,  too,  an  added  interest  to  the  manage- 
ment in  the  feeling  that  it  is  working  on  a  plan,  the  underlying 
principles  of  which  are  already  determined,  and  the  details  of 
which  are  to  be  developed  in  accordance  with  those  principles 
more  and  more  finely  as  years  go  by. 

It  has  been  my  pleasure  to  have  employed  a  number  of 
young  college  men.  Before  they  start  to  work,  while  they 
are  in  the  only  impressionable  period  that  exists  after  they 
leave  college  —  that  is,  when  they  first  come  under  the  eye 
of  the  manager  —  I  tell  them  that  had  I  known  or  realized 
the  comprehensive  plan  of  work  under  which  I  am  working 
now,  an  equivalent  of  three  years  of  the  hardest  work  I  have 
ever  done  could  have  been  saved.  The  hard  work  would 
not  have  been  saved,  but  I  should  have  been  saved  three 
years  because  I  should  have  been  working  on  a  plan  rather 
than  groping  around  in  the  dark  and  formulating  plans  many 
of  which  have  had  to  be  abandoned. 

Probably  many  of  you  will  say,  "That  sounds  all  right,  but 
is  not  fitted  for  my  business."  I  was  very  much  interested 
to  talk  with  a  man  who  is  the  editor  of  one  of  the  most  pro- 
gressive magazines,  who  told  me  today  that  he  had  been  using 
some  of  the  apparatus  which  he  had  seen  in  use  under  Scientific 
Management.  His  work  is  editing.  Editors  have  always 
said  that  their  work  is  not  subject  to  Scientific  Management 
because  their  work  does  not  deal  with  systems,  —  their 
work  deals  with  brains.  I  was  much  pleased  to  have  him 
tell  me  that  he  has  constructed  a  bulletin  board  in  his  office 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  141 

with  which  he  is  planning  his  editorial  work,  so  that  already 
he  has  done  four  months  work  in  one  month  and  is  up  here 
for  a  two  weeks  vacation,  or  somewhere  for  a  two  weeks 
vacation,  because  he  has  that  time  which  he  never  had  had 
before  under  the  old  working  conditions.  Besides  this  saving 
in  his  own  time,  he  has  reduced  the  amount  of  money  invested 
in  a  mass  of  paid  articles,  and  now  buys  such  only  as  are 
required  for  a  given  edition. 

Beneath  all  this  there  is  a  good  deal  of  philosophy.  It 
seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  best  solution  of  a  fair  compensa- 
tion for  labor  because  it  puts  a  premium  on  the  efficiency  of 
both  employees  and  employer,  and  the  success  of  Scientific 
Management  depends  upon  this  close  cooperation  of  employer 
and  employee.  Along  some  such  line  it  seems  to  me  will 
sooner  or  later  be  worked  out  the  great  problems  of  labor 
and  capital. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  speaker  is  to  tell  us  about  the 
spirit  in  which  an  employer  should  approach  Scientific  Man- 
agement. That  is  one  of  the  most  important  topics  of  dis- 
cussion at  this  conference.  Scientific  Management  is  not  to 
be  bought  and  installed  as  is  a  boiler;  what  is  bought  de- 
pends upon  the  attitude  of  the  executive  force.  Mr.  Dodge 
has  devoted  his  life  to  the  invention  and  perfection  of  con- 
veying and  hoisting  machinery,  and  business  men  know  very 
well  the  extraordinary  success  achieved  by  his  companies  in 
the  industrial  field.  It  is  the  success  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. And  his  business  represents  success  not  alone  as  meas- 
ured by  the  balance  sheet,  but  as  measured  in  other  important 
ways.  The  standards  of  business  are  the  highest  and  never 
vary;  there  is  nowhere  a  more  loyal  body  of  workmen;  and 
there  are  no  secrets  about  the  methods  which  achieve  the  suc- 
cess. Over  the  front  of  his  plant,  in  letters  large  enough  to 
be  read  before  one  is  close  enough  to  read  the  firm  name,  is 
the  sign  VISITORS  ALWAYS  WELCOME.  Gentlemen,  —  Mr. 
James  Mapes  Dodge. 


142  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


THE  SPIRIT  IN   WHICH   SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 
SHOULD   BE  APPROACHED 

BY  JAMES   MAPES   DODGE 

Chairman  of  the  Board,  The  Link-Belt  Company,  Philadelphia 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

/TT\HE  old  saying  that  "each  one  of  us  endeavors  to 
measure  all  things  in  his  own  pint  pot,"  I  am 
free  to  admit,  applies  very  well  to  me,  for  while 
the  title  which  has  been  assigned  to  me  assumes  a  much 
broader  treatment  than  a  mere  recital  of  personal  feelings, 
the  best  I  can  do  is  to  draw  freely  on  personal  experiences, 
disguising  them  by  eliminating  the  personal  pronoun  and  giving 
them  an  air  of  general  application.  In  this  endeavor,  there- 
fore, let  us  talk  of  the  spirit  in  which  we  approach  Scientific 
Management. 

The  term  Scientific  Management  is  possibly  not  the  best; 
many  establishments  that  can  lay  no  claim  to  any  comprehen- 
sive scheme  of  organization  contain  within  them  elements  of 
successful  management.  Mr.  Taylor  in  his  treatise  on  the 
subject  used  the  title  "The  Art  of  Management,"  while  others 
in  speaking  of  Mr.  Taylor's  work  refer  to  it  as  a  "Conserva- 
tion of  Human  Efforts  through  the  Art  of  Management." 
Certainly,  where  human  elements  are  introduced  into  a 
problem,  scientific  methods  alone  will  hardly  achieve  a  com- 
plete solution.  It  must  be  a  combination  of  scientific  analysis 
and  methods  plus  consideration  for  the  interest  and  well-being 
of  the  workers,  and  tact  in  meeting  their  inherent  resistance 
to  change,  or  their  natural  prejudice  against  something  of 
which  they  do  not  understand  the  full  import.  Many  con- 
cerns succeed  because  they  have  taken  care  of  this  human 
side  of  the  problem,  even  though  they  lack  scientific  methods 
of  procedure  and  exactness  of  information.  Other  concerns 
which  expect  to  reduce  management  to  an  algebraic  formula 
fail  in  the  attempt  because  they  neglect  to  foster  growth  and 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  143 

initiative  in  the  working  force.  These  concerns  have  lost  sight 
of  the  human  side  of  the  problem.  Truly  Scientific  Manage- 
ment takes  account  of  both  sides  of  the  problem,  and  the 
method  of  approach  should  lie  along  both  of  these  lines. 

The  most  primitive  form  of  management  exists  in  those 
establishments  in  which  the  owner  "carries  his  office  in  his 
hat."  When  the  establishment  grows  beyond  the  capacity 
of  the  contents  of  one  hat,  power  and  responsibility  are 
delegated  to  others,  until  these  too  become  overtaxed. 
Costs  go  up,  deliveries  fall  off,  and  the  necessity  for 
a  further  distribution  of  authority  and  responsibility  arises. 
This  gradual  delegation  and  subdivision  of  authority  and 
responsibility  is  characteristic  of  what  Mr.  Taylor  terms  the 
"Military  System  of  Management."  Under  it  the  shops  are 
run  almost  entirely  by  the  foremen,  and  the  actual  work  is 
performed  by  men  working  under  constant  criticism  and 
goading.  The  foremen  have  ideas  of  management  more  or 
less  at  variance  with  each  other,  but  the  proprietors  accept 
the  results  as  the  best  that  can  be  obtained,  without  any 
proper  or  regular  investigation.  The  workman  who  calls  at 
the  gate  is  supposed  and  expected  to  be  an  expert,  requiring  no 
instruction  or  help;  the  foreman  is  expected  to  know  how  to 
perform  all  the  duties  of  his  position,  and  the  superintendent 
is  assumed  by  the  owner  to  know  how  to  manage  shop  affairs 
to  the  practical  limit  of  the  possibilities.  In  such  a  form  of 
management,  criticism  from  the  head  goes  completely  down 
the  line,  gathering  in  vehemence  and  force  as  it  proceeds, 
while  praise  extended  from  the  top  usually  penetrates  only 
as  far  as  the  superintendent's  office. 

Despotic  authority  which  manifests  itself  in  harsh  criti- 
cism or  tyrannical  treatment  of  the  men  is  undoubtedly  the 
characteristic  feature  of  this  form  of  management.  Money 
returns  are  the  only  gage  of  success,  and  that  foreman  is 
best  who  can  force  from  his  men  the  greatest  amount  of  work 
with  the  least  possible  compensation.  From  such  methods 
the  men  have  no  redress  except  to  seek  employment  elsewhere. 
The  general  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  workmen  have 


144  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

rights  and  that  the  remark,  "You  don't  have  to  work  here 
unless  you  want  to"  is  not  a  proper  answer  to  a  legitimate 
complaint,  is  one  of  the  factors  which  is  creating  a  demand 
for  a  general  change  in  methods  of  management. 

It  is  a  serious  thing  for  a  worker  who  has  located  his  home 
within  reasonable  proximity  to  his  place  of  employment  and 
with  proper  regard  for  the  schooling  of  his  children,  to  have 
to  seek  other  employment  and  readjust  his  home  affairs,  with 
a  loss  of  time  and  wages.  Proper  management  takes  account 
not  only  of  this  fact,  but  also  of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  dis- 
tinct loss  to  the  employer  when  an  old  and  experienced  em- 
ployee is  replaced  by  a  new  man  who  must  be  educated  in 
the  methods  of  the  establishment.  An  old  employee  has,  in 
his  experience,  a  potential  value  that  should  not  be  lightly 
disregarded,  and  there  should  be,  in  case  of  dismissal,  the 
soundest  of  reasons,  in  which  personal  prejudice  or  a  tem- 
porary mental  condition  of  the  foreman  should  play  no  part. 

Constant  changing  of  employees  is  not  wholesome  for  any 
establishment,  and  the  sudden  discovery  by  a  foreman  that 
a  man  who  has  been  employed  for  a  year  or  more  is  "no  good" 
is  often  a  reflection  on  the  foreman,  and  more  often  still,  is 
wholly  untrue.  All  workingmen,  unless  they  develop  intem- 
perate or  dishonest  habits,  have  value  in  them,  and  the  con- 
serving and  increasing  of  this  value  is  a  duty  which  should 
be  assumed  by  their  superiors.  There  is  humor  and  sense  in 
the  declaration  of  the  colonel  in  the  Pirates  of  Penzance, 
"I  lead  my  regiment  from  behind,  I  find  it  less  exciting"; 
for  instead  of  spurring  men  on  by  damning  them  from  the 
front,  it  is  more  profitable  and  more  effective  in  the  industrial 
campaign  to  extend  a  helping  hand  to  those  in  the  rear,  fur- 
nishing them  with  proper  manual  and  mental  equipment  to 
keep  up  with  their  fellows. 

Under  this  method  the  most  successful  superintendents 
and  foremen  are  those  who  can  best  aid  and  encourage 
their  subordinates  to  make  the  most  of  themselves  and  their 
opportunities,  removing  obstacles  from  their  paths  and 
enabling  them  to  earn  greater  rewards  without  overtaxing 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  145 

their  mental  and  physical  abilities.  In  other  words,  Scientific 
Management  consists  in  the  cultivation  of  the  best  produc- 
tive methods.  Information  can  much  more  economically  be 
ascertained  by  the  leaders,  and  the  knowledge  transmitted 
to  the  workingmen,  than  it  could  be  were  each  man  to 
endeavor  to  ascertain  it  for  himself. 

Probably  with  all  of  us  it  is  more  difficult  to  accept  a  modi- 
fication of  a  belief  than  to  absorb  a  most  startling  or  revolu- 
tionary new  idea  which  does  not  call  for  any  reversal  of  a 
notion  to  which  we  have  tenaciously  held.  So  in  this  matter 
of  management  it  was,  and  is,  and  always  will  be  essential 
for  us  to  keep  a  hopeful  equilibrium  during  transition  from 
our  old  to  our  new  love;  and  this  transition  period  is  certain 
to  be  a  trying  one. 

In  the  establishments  with  which  I  am  connected  conver- 
sion came  slowly  to  nearly  all,  and  some  of  those  who,  it  would 
seem,  should  logically  have  accepted  the  innovation  with 
avidity,  seemed  temperamentally  incapable  of  such  acceptance. 
Those  who  live  entirely  in  the  present,  without  thought  of 
the  future  or  of  the  past,  can  easily  acquire  the  habit  of  doing 
things  in  a  new  way;  but  those  having  active  minds  are  apt 
to  waver  between  the  necessity  of  advancing  a  decision  and  the 
fear  of  error  born  of  caution  and  imagination.  Even  a  measure 
of  intelligence  might  show  that  an  ardent  accepter  of  Scientific 
Management  and  a  man  unalterably  opposed  to  it  in  every 
form,  are  of  the  same  brain  capacity.  There  is  temperamental 
sectarianism  in  every  profession  and  walk  of  life,  inexplicable 
because  temperament  is  inexplicable.  We  all  know  men  who 
feel  that  no  one  can  do  things  for  them  as  well  as  they  can  do 
them  for  themselves.  It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  there 
are  certain  things  that  the  individual  can  do  for  himself  better 
than  any  one  else  can  do  them  for  him;  but  there  are,  un- 
doubtedly, thousands  of  things  which  can  be  better  done  for 
him  by  others.  Should  a  man  decide  that  before  he  looks 
at  an  eclipse  he  must  become  a  thorough  astronomer,  he  will, 
of  course,  eventually  gain  more  from  looking  at  the  eclipse 
than  those  who  rush  out  at  first  call  and  are  satisfied  to  wonder 


I46  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

at  the  phenomenon;  but  this  same  temperament  might  lead 
a  man,  if  taken  sick,  to  study  the  medical  art  until  he  had  be- 
come a  graduate  physician,  or  to  decline  to  deposit  his  money 
in  a  bank  until  he  had  mastered  the  intricacies  of  banking, 
and  so  on  in  all  the  accepted  matters  of  our  lives.  So  it 
is  with  some  in  considering  the  question  of  management; 
instead  of  investigating  in  an  open-minded  way  the  logic  and 
results,  they  elect  to  question  every  minor  step  and  consider 
that  they  must  be  accorded  a  complete  vindication  and  proof 
of  the  other  man's  ideas  before  they  are  willing  to  lessen 
their  grip  on  preconceived  and  opposing  convictions.  In 
other  words,  we  haven't  mental  legs  enough  to  permit  us  to 
maintain  a  position  of  straddling  both  sides  of  every  presented 
question.  It  is  therefore  essential,  in  order  to  use  the  new 
system  of  management,  that  a  man  have  within  him  a  desire 
to  travel  in  that  direction,  and  that  he  aid  to  the  best  of 
his  ability  in  the  removal  of  small,  real  or  imaginary  obstruc- 
tions, rather  than  hold  back  and  allow  all  his  progress  to  be 
brought  about  by  the  pressure  of  the  breeching,  or  the  pull 
at  the  halter.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  seems  that  all  of  us*need 
Scientific  Management.  If  we  naturally  have  it  in  sufficient 
quantity  we  certainly  need  what  we  have,  but  may  not  need 
any  more.  If  we  have  none  at  all,  it  would  be  absolutely 
ridiculous  to  say  that  we  could  not  make  good  use  of  some. 
The  degree  and  quantity  are  regulated,  possibly,  not  so  much 
by  our  thoughts  as  by  the  invincible  logic  of  progress  and 
existing  conditions. 

It  would  of  course  be  ridiculous  for  an  employer  of  one 
man  to  undertake  the  introduction  of  Mr.  Taylor's  "Art  of 
Management,"  but  if  he  were  familiar  with  some  of  the  under- 
lying principles  promulgated  by  Mr.  Taylor,  it  would  un- 
doubtedly be  of  value  to  him.  The  question  of  exactly 
how  large  an  establishment  should  be  or  how  small  an  estab- 
lishment may  be  to  introduce  Scientific  Management  in  it 
with  profit  and  success,  is  of  course  impossible  of  numerical 
answer,  because  it  is  dependent  upon  so  many  things.  It 
might  be  likened  to  what  we  call  civilization.  There  can  be 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  147 

no  dissent  to  the  general  statement  that  civilization  is  bene- 
ficial, but,  if  by  civilization  we  mean  everything  in  general 
and  in  detail  that  is  properly  a  part  of  the  system  of  civiliza- 
tion, it  would  be  very  difficult  for  any  one  to  say,  provided 
an  uninhabited  island  were  discovered  in  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
that  in  colonizing  it,  civilization  in  its  fullest  sense  could  be 
applied  to  five,  ten,  one  hundred  or  some  other  definite  number 
of  people.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  quite  evident  that  even 
one  person  on  this  island  would  be  immensely  benefited  by 
some  elements  of  modern  civilization.  In  fact,  so  important 
would  it  be  to  this  individual  that  his  very  life  might  depend 
upon  it.  On  the  other  hand,  if  some  overwhelming  power 
should  decree  that  he  must  use  every  bit  of  civilization,  his 
speedy  demise  would  be  absolutely  certain;  and  so  it  is  in 
the  matter  under  discussion.  Life  is  too  short,  individuals 
and  people  too  circumscribed  by  their  senses  and  surround- 
ings, to  see,  feel  and  believe  that  they  need  Scientific  Manage- 
ment in  its  entirety.  Nevertheless,  no  establishment  is  so 
small,  no  business  so  primitive,  but  that  Scientific  Manage- 
ment has  details  or  suggestions  that  would  be  helpful.  This 
would  indicate  that  there  is  no  way  to  define  exactly  the  spirit 
with  which  each  individual  or  establishment  should  approach 
this  subject.  It  may  for  all  time  be  governed  by  tempera- 
ment, training  and  the  necessities  of  each  individual  case. 
Of  course,  if  an  individual  has  inquired  into  Scientific  Manage- 
ment with  a  view  to  adding  to  his  stock  of  ammunition  with 
which  to  blow  it  up,  and  to  pose  among  his  friends  as  a  per- 
son of  superior  intelligence  because  he  says  a  few  bitter  or 
apparently  clever  things  in  opposition  to  the  remarkable 
wave  of  managerial  awakening  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
no  good  is  gained;  on  the  other  hand  unthinking,  untrained 
acquiescence  is  probably  equally  wide  of  the  mark,  and  only  a 
conscientious  investigation  of  the  subject  will  indicate  its 
value  and  its  best  plan  of  application. 

Let  us  assume  that  a  man  having  heard  of  the  "Taylor 
System"  is  possessed  of  the  idea  that  he  would  like  to  find 
out  something  about  it.  It  is  more  than  likely  that  this 


148  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

individual  has  been  in  the  commercial  rather  than  in  the 
practical  side  of  manufacture,  and  he  may  be  entertained 
because  he  has  heard  rumors  that  economy  is  effected  and 
that  profits  are  augmented  by  the  system.  Should  he  send 
for  all  the  papers  that  have  been  published  on  this  subject  by 
the  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  and  read  them, 
however  carefully,  I  fear  he  would  become  somewhat  con- 
fused, inasmuch  as  a  great  deal  that  has  been  written  in  these 
papers,  not  being  directly  in  line  with  his  personal  training 
and  experience,  would  be  obscure  and  difficult  of  understand- 
ing. He  would,  however,  gather  from  it  that  an  effort  for 
economical  production  had  certainly  been  made,  and  that  it 
is  on  different  lines  from  those  efforts  which  might  be  called 
"of  an  older  school."  On  the  other  hand,  should  the  indi- 
vidual be  entirely  of  a  mechanical  or  a  manufacturing  turn  of 
mind  and  of  only  corresponding  experiences,  his  reading  of 
this  literature  would  set  in  motion  an  entirely  different  train 
of  thought.  He  would  find  much  more  in  the  papers  intel- 
ligible to  him,  but  as  many  of  the  statements  would  be 
apparently  at  variance  with  his  own  previous  experience, 
he  would  be  inclined  to  be  very  critical  of  minor  details, 
although  in  general  acquiescent  with  the  main  ideas  of  the 
papers.  In  both  cases,  however,  there  would  be  an  awaken- 
ing of  interest  in  the  subject  which  would  not  be  easily  put 
to  rest  without  further  knowledge. 

Then  would  come  a  period  of  discussion  with  those  having 
interest  in  the  subject  and  the  clarifying  of  a  great  deal  which 
was  at  first  obscure  and  vague.  This  result  is  brought 
about  by  a  lapse  of  time,  #nd  time  is  as  necessary  an  ele- 
ment in  making  a  proper  impression  on  the  human  mind 
as  it  is  in  making  a  proper  actinic  impression  on  a  photo- 
graphic plate.  In  the  latter  case  we  have  slow  plates  and 
quick  plates,  and  they  are  acted  upon  by  wide  angle,  tele- 
scopic and  numerous  other  lenses;  but  human  beings  have 
the  lenses  of  their  senses  sometimes  out  of  focus,  which 
has  a  potent  influence  in  the  registration  of  impressions 
upon  their  minds.  After  these  impressions  are  registered, 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  149 

—  some  slowly,  some  quickly,  some  befogged  by  over- 
exposure,  others  deficient  on  account  of  under-timing  — 
there  comes  another  necessary  and  essential  lapse  of  time, 
and  that  is  in  the  development  of  the  impressions,  either  in 
our  brain  or  on  the  photographic  plates,  as  the  case  may  be. 
Now,  this  development  is  usually  a  much  greater  absorber 
of  time  than  the  mere  registering  of  the  impression;  and  then 
after  the  exposure  and  development  comes  another  period, 
much  longer  still,  and  which  may  be  never-ending,  and  during 
which  proper  use  is  made  of  the  now  developed  impressions. 
Photographic  failures  are  many,  but  probably  not  so  numer- 
ous, proportionately,  as  mental  failures;  so  we  must  make 
ample  allowance  for  variations  in  the  impressions  which, 
apparently,  the  same  exposures  may  make  on  different  men- 
talities. 

It  is  almost  needless  for  me  to  say  that  the  mentality 
which  would  receive  the  initial  impressions  with  proper  speed 
and  develop  them  into  their  most  useful  forms  is  the  one  that 
I  must  talk  about,  otherwise  my  task  would  be  endless  and 
your  interest  entirely  used  up.  We  will  therefore  assume 
that  an  individual  has  received  proper  impressions,  that  they 
have  been  properly  developed,  and  that  it  has  become  his 
earnest  desire  properly  to  introduce  Scientific  Management 
into  his  establishment.  The  first  step,  even  though  he  is  the 
sole  proprietor  and  theoretically  can  do  exactly  as  he  pleases, 
must  of  necessity  be  to  interest  some  of  his  associates.  This 
he  will  find,  as  I  have  previously  stated,  is  not  in  every  case 
an  easy  proposition,  for  the  reason  that  temperamental  differ- 
ences in  individuals  will  require  varying  degrees  and  kinds  of 
explanations,  and  the  setting  forth  of  the  reasons  in  different 
mentally  palatable  ways.  He  will  of  course  find,  when  he 
approaches  his  subordinates  and  they  in  various  degrees 
accept  his  views  with  the  feeling  that  something  can  be  done 
of  advantage  to  the  establishment,  that  in  no  case  will  his 
leading  men  consider  that  anything  in  this  new-fangled  man- 
agement business  should  be  in  any  way  applied  to  them, 
though  they  can  see  with  greater  or  less  degree  of  certainty 


150  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

that  it  would  be  admirable  for  everybody  else  in  the  place. 
The  problem  of  overcoming  this  mental  condition  is  the 
most  difficult  of  all.  The  very  fact  that  the  leading  men  of  an 
establishment  are  beholden  to  their  cleverness  and  independ- 
ence of  thought  for  their  promotion  makes  it  certain  that  they 
will  not  hesitate  to  combat  the  views  of  their  superior,  if  in 
their  judgment  it  seems  best.  In  other  words,  they  are  not 
disposed  to  take  orders  blindly  and  do  that  which  they  con- 
sider ill-advised  or  unnecessary.  Consequently  they  will  ask 
many  questions,  and  probably  it  will  be  necessary  and  de- 
sirable to  send  some  of  the  leading  men  out  as  investigators 
to  go  through  other  establishments  and  see  for  themselves 
what  results  have  been  obtained  from  the  innovation.  When 
they  return  they  will  not  only  have  seen  a  good  deal  that  will 
be  entertaining  to  them,  but  will  be  in  much  better  shape  to 
discuss  the  subject  further  with  their  employer. 

Then  comes  the  period  of  incubation  of  the  best  plan  to 
pursue  in  beginning  the  actual  work  of  the  introduction  of 
Scientific  Management.  If  the  establishment  has  good  use 
for  all  of  its  leading  men  and  they  are  properly  and  rationally 
busy,  it  is  quite  obvious  that  they  cannot  devote  their  time 
to  the  acquisition  and  introduction  of  all  the  details  of  Scien- 
tific Management,  as  well  as  keep  up  with  their  regular  lines 
of  work.  Therefore  it  is  desirable  to  call  in  the  services  of 
some  one  who  can  bring  knowledge  and  experience  to  play, 
to  begin  the  actual  introduction.  As  soon  as  this  is  done 
two  forms  of  activity  manifest  themselves;  one,  strange  to 
say,  not  the  easiest  to  regulate,  is  the  well-meaning,  unasked- 
for  assistance  to  the  introduction  which  usually  takes  the  form 
of  suggestion  of  improved  methods  in  details  that  are  clearly 
improvements  in  the  mind  of  the  suggester,  but  are  impos- 
sible of  acceptance  on  account  of  a  conflict  with  other  por- 
tions of  the  system  to  be  introduced.  This  form  of  activity 
may  be  likened  to  a  chorus  in  which  many  of  the  individuals 
decide  that  more  or  less  volume  of  sound,  or  a  change  of 
tone  or  time,  would  be  better  than  to  follow  the  dictates  of 
the  leader  and  to  sing  the  music  as  set  before  them.  The  other 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  151 

development  is  one  either  of  open  or  sullen  opposition.  Fre- 
quently proper  explanation  and  patience  will  overcome  this 
form  more  easily  than  the  other.  The  over-zealous  cannot 
be  properly  curbed  without  their  feeling  that  they  have  been 
"sat  upon"  or  harshly  dealt  with.  I  am  speaking  of  these 
as  though  they  were  phases  which  cropped  up  and  could  be 
disposed  of.  They  can  be  disposed  of  in  time,  but  again  the 
time  element  comes  in,  and  courage,  patience  and  persever- 
ance are  required  on  the  part  of  those  at  the  head  of  the 
concern  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  would  be  dreamed  of 
before  they  had  had  the  experience. 

A  great  deal  of  care  and  thought  must  of  course  be  given 
to  maintain  the  business  of  the  establishment  in  all  its 
details  while  changes  are  being  made,  and  to  avoid  having 
clashes  and  conflicting  methods  work  hardship  to  the  cus- 
tomers or  to  the  profit-showing  of  the  concern.  It  is  quite 
obvious  that  it  will  be  only  a  short  time  before  two  systems 
are  being  used  in  the  same  establishment,  and  it  will  require 
all  the  ability  available  to  put  up  with  this  state  of  affairs 
until  the  new  displaces  the  old;  and  probably  this  is  the 
most  trying  time  for  the  leading  men  all  through  the  establish- 
ment, because  in  the  stores  department,  order  department, 
shipping  department  and,  in  fact,  all  the  departments,  extra 
work  and  vigilance  are  required  of  every  one  in  order  that 
the  confusion  may  be  reduced  to  its  lowest  point.  In  spite  of 
everything,  however,  there  will  be  days  when  it  will  take 
courage  on  the  part  of  individuals,  and,  in  fact,  courage  on 
the  part  of  the  whole  management,  to  keep  moving  manfully 
ahead  and  not  to  be  stampeded  by  the  trying  conditions. 
After  a  while,  however,  the  benefits  of  the  system  will  begin 
to  manifest  themselves  so  strongly  and  the  new  methods 
will  reveal  themselves  so  satisfactorily,  that  all  will  become 
buoyantly  interested  and  work  with  redoubled  vigor  to  hasten 
the  entire  consummation  of  the  introduction. 

So  far  as  the  workmen  themselves  are  concerned  very  little 
difficulty  is  experienced.  It  is  essential,  however,  that  the 
working-man  should  be  told  the  exact  truth,  and  under  no 


152  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

circumstances  should  anything  be  done  which  has  even  the 
appearance  of  taking  advantage  of  him.  He  must  appre- 
ciate that  his  interests  and  those  of  his  employer  are 
mutual,  and  that  their  happiness  and  success  depend  upon 
mutual  trust  and  consideration.  If  employers  think  that 
by  the  introduction  of  Scientific  Management  they  can  gain 
an  advantage  over  the  workers,  they  are  making  a  serious 
mistake  and  wasting  their  efforts  in  what  will  eventually  turn 
out  to  their  great  and  lasting  disadvantage.  The  whole 
scheme  is  one  of  mutual  advancement  and  the  corner-stone 
of  the  temple  of  the  "Art  of  Management"  is  truth;  the 
abutments  must  be  truth,  and  every  stone  in  the  structure 
must  be  truth. 

Herbert  Spencer  said  that  there  is  a  principle  which  is  proof 
against  all  argument,  and  which  cannot  fail  to  keep  a  man 
in  everlasting  ignorance;  this  principle  is  to  condemn  before 
investigating. 


JFourtfc  Session 

FRIDAY  AFTERNOON,   OCTOBER 
THE  THIRTEENTH 

ROUND   TABLE   DISCUSSIONS 

THE  APPLICATION  OF   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT 
IN  CERTAIN  INDUSTRIES 


THE  APPLICATION  OF   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGE- 
MENT IN   CERTAIN  INDUSTRIES 

I.     MACHINE  MANUFACTURE 

LEADER,   H.   K.   HATHAWAY, 
Vice-President,  The  Tabor  Manufacturing  Co.,  Philadelphia 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  Many  phases  of  Scientific  Man- 
agement apply  to  the  machine-shop,  —  among  them 
standardization  of  tools  and  equipment,  standard- 
ization of  methods,  standardization  of  machinery  and  ma- 
chines, the  matter  of  time-study  and  its  application  to 
proper  planning,  and  functional  foremanship  for  increasing 
the  output  of  machine  operators. 

One  of  the  first  things  we  find  it  necessary  to  do,  in  apply- 
ing the  principles  of  Scientific  Management  to  the  machine- 
shop,  is  to  bring  about  standard  conditions  which  will  make 
it  possible  for  us,  through  careful  planning  and  administration 
of  the  work,  to  get  from  each  machine  the  output  of  which  it 
is  capable.  That  means,  briefly,  in  many  cases  respeeding 
the  machines.  Very  few  machines  are  properly  speeded  to 
run  most  efficiently.  Mr.  Earth  has  probably  done  more, 
and  knows  more,  of  that  work  than  most  of  us.  Standardiza- 
tion of  the  small-tool  equipment,  so  that  proper  quantities  of 
small  tools  may  always  be  available,  is  another  step.  And 
following  that  we  have  the  matter  of  time-study,  setting  tasks, 
and  the  institution  of  functional  foremanship  in  place  of  the 
old-time  foremanship. 

I  ask  Mr.  Earth  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  subject  of 
machine-tools. 

Mr.  EARTH:  The  work  I  have  personally  been  doing  in 
introducing  Scientific  Management  in  machine-shops  might 


156  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

be  divided  into  two  main  parts.  First  we  bring  about  an 
orderly  procession  of  everything  through  the  shop,  so  that 
every  man  at  his  machine  or  other  post  gets  his  work  assigned 
to  him  by  the  planning  department  and  not  by  his  shop 
foreman.  That  is  the  preparatory  stage,  to  last,  say  two 
years,  before  we  do  anything  to  increase  the  man's  efficiency, 
or  the  efficiency  of  his  machine.  Next  we  look  into  what  we 
can  do  with  the  man  and  the  machine.  In  other  words,  we 
first  bring  the  work  into  the  procession  we  want  it  done, 
without  asking  the  question  whether  it  takes  five  minutes 
or  five  hours  to  do  a  job,  or  whether  the  workman  can  do  it 
in  ten  minutes  or  fifteen.  Then  comes  the  great  question: 
"  Is  each  machine  fitted  for  the  work  assigned  to  it  in  the  con- 
dition it  is  in?"  and  it  becomes  a  big  and  costly  job,  if  we 
want  things  done  right,  to  thoroughly  investigate  all  the 
machinery,  and  on  the  strength  of  this  to  respeed  and 
probably  rebuild  a  good  deal  of  it;  yes,  sometimes  condemn 
some  of  it.  Thus,  for  instance,  we  always  find  that  lathes 
of  the  same  size  in  a  machine-shop  have  great  variations  in 
speeds  and  feeds.  Each  machine  taken  by  itself  is  not  con- 
sistently speeded,  and  compared  with  a  machine  of  another 
maker  it  shows  a  considerable  difference;  while  we  want  to 
have  a  certain  group  of  machines  alike  in  every  respect  so 
that  a  piece  of  work  may  be  routed  to  any  one  of  these  with 
equal  propriety,  may  be  done  on  one  under  absolutely  the 
same  conditions  as  on  another. 

In  routing  work  we  sometimes  prepare  months  ahead,  and  in 
so  doing  frequently  get  a  congestion  at  one  or  more  machines 
in  such  a  group;  for  unconsciously  the  clerks  who  do  the 
routing  get  a  sort  of  love  for  certain  machines  which  they 
think  will  do  the  work  in  the  best  way.  This  necessitates  a 
reassigning  of  work  to  other  machines,  and  when  these  are 
not  just  like  the  machine  to  which  the  work  was  routed  in  the 
first  place,  it  means  modified  instruction  cards  and  new  tasks 
to  be  set,  —  the  delay,  annoyance,  and  expense  of  which  will 
far  exceed  the  interest  on  a  good  sum  of  money  invested  in 
rebuilding  and  respeeding  machines. 


ON   SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  157 

When  some  fine  day  in  the  future  the  machine-tool  builders 
of  this  country  get  together  and  agree  on  standard  speeds, 
feeds,  T-slots,  spindle-sockets,  etc.,  etc.,  we  shall  build  over 
old  machines  that  are  worth  it  to  conform  to  these  standards, 
and  from  then  on  a  good  deal  of  the  expense  we  now  incur 
will  be  unnecessary. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  suggest  that  the  best  way  of  conducting 
this  meeting  would  be  by  the  audience  asking  questions 
regarding  the  application  of  Scientific  Management  to 
machine-shops,  and  I,  for  one,  stand  ready  to  answer  any 
question  of  that  kind. 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  I  might  say  that  my  object  in  asking 
Mr.  Earth  to  speak  here  is  to  bring  out  the  importance 
of  standardization  in  relation  to  Scientific  Management.  I 
think  the  matter  of  bolt-slots  would  be  a  good  thing  to  begin 
with. 

MR.  EARTH:  The  bolt-slot  is  one  of  the  devices  in  machin- 
ery for  holding  the  work,  and  the  machine  builders  have  abso- 
lutely no  consistent  rule  about  it.  However,  under  Scientific 
Management  it  becomes  necessary  to  standardize  all  such 
slots,  and  I  have  spent  as  high  as  $1,000  and  $2,000  in 
so  making  all  bolt-slots  of  nominally  the  same  size,  so  nearly 
alike,  that  the  same  standard  bolt  would  fit  them  all.  When 
this  is  done  we  can  get  along  with  a  limited  number  of  these 
bolts  in  the  tool- room,  where  they  always  will  be  maintained 
in  good  condition;  whereas,  when  slots  are  not  standard- 
ized, each  machine  must  have  a  full  supply  at  hand.  These 
will  not  be  properly  looked  after,  and  will  therefore  soon 
become  so  bad  that  greatly  increased  time  will  be  required 
in  putting  them  on  the  work. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  I  had  a  question  in  mind  when  I  came  in; 
it  has  been  in  part  answered.  Though  I  am  very  much  inter- 
ested in  machine  manufacture,  my  interest  is  rather  incidental, 
and  from  the  standpoint  of  the  repair-shop.  I  seem  to  be 
connected  with  the  type  of  management  which  was  described 
this  afternoon  as  unsystematic.  I  should  very  much  like  to 
have  Scientific  Management.  What  is  my  first  step? 


158  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  Your  first  step  is  to  acquaint  yourself 
as  far  as  possible  with  what  Scientific  Management  is.  I 
think  one  of  the  best  ways  to  do  that,  after  reading  such 
literature  as  is  available  on  the  subject,  is  to  visit  plants 
where  Scientific  Management  has  already  been  installed. 
I  can  speak,  of  course,  only  for  the  Tabor  Manufacturing 
Company  with  which  I  am  connected,  and  I  am  glad  to  take 
this  opportunity  to  say  that  we  are  always  pleased  to  have 
any  one  interested  in  the  subject  visit  us,  and  to  show  them 
everything  we  can  about  the  matter.  I  extend  to  all  of  you 
an  invitation  to  visit  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company. 
I  am  sure  that  Mr.  Dodge  would  be  glad  to  see  at  the 
Link-Belt  plant  any  one  interested  in  the  subject. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Approaching  the  subject  from  the  side 
Mr.  Schumaker  has  just  mentioned,  from  the  repair-shop,  I 
suppose  one  of  the  first  questions  is,  what  is  the  expense  of 
shifting  over? 

MR.  EARTH:  It  is  almost  impossible  to  answer  that,  because 
it  depends  on  how  much  there  is  to  be  done.  Of  course  the 
better  managed  the  plant  is  already,  and  the  better  equipped  it 
is,  and  the  better  the  mental  attitude  is  with  reference  to  this 
subject,  the  less  it  costs.  So  it  is  impossible  to  fix  any  cost. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  I  understand  that.  I  presume  any  of  us 
who  have  run  shops  of  any  description  have  all  our  lives 
attempted  to  run  certain  forms  of  scientific  management; 
I  mean  the  attempt  has  always  been  the  production  of  work 
at  the  least  possible  cost.  Now,  then,  for  a  person  approaching 
the  thing  as  a  new  subject  the  term  Scientific  Management 
has  something  of  an  academic  sound,  and  I  was  wondering 
if  there  were  any  fundamental  principles,  say  with  reference 
to  clerical  work  in  connection  with  it,  which  you  would  not 
ordinarily  find  in  the  repair- shop. 

MR.  EARTH:  Yes,  there  is  as  a  rule  an  increased  expense  in 
clerk  help,  in  connection  with  decreased  expense  of  a  different 
nature. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Now,  the  next  point;  is  the  decreased 
expense  largely  offset  by  the  increased  expense? 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  159 

MR.  BARTH:  It  is  a  matter,  not  of  added  expense,  but  of 
changing  the  elements  of  the  expense,  with  a  total  reduction 
in  the  cost  of  doing  the  work.  For  example,  you  do  in  the 
planning  department  a  vast  amount  of  work  formerly  done  in 
the  shop.  Under  the  old  type  of  management  the  workman 
who  runs  out  of  a  job  frequently  finds  it  necessary  to  look  up 
his  foreman  to  get  his  next  job  assigned  to  him.  Theoreti- 
cally the  foreman  may  have  the  next  job  ready  for  him,  but 
actually  he  does  not  in  many  cases.  After  the  foreman  has 
been  found,  he  may  or  may  not  be  able  to  tell  immediately 
what  the  man  should  do  next.  He  may  tell  him  to  go  to  a 
certain  place  and  get  a  certain  piece  of  material  and  put  it 
on  his  machine.  But  the  man  finds  that  he  needs  a  drawing, 
and  may  again  have  to  ask  the  foreman  where  to  get  it. 
After  finally  securing  and  studying  the  drawing  with  or  with- 
out the  foreman's  help,  he  finds  that  he  needs  certain  tools 
not  already  in  his  collection,  and  to  secure  these  again  con- 
sumes a  great  deal  of  time  before  he-  can  actually  go  to  work. 
All  of  this  purely  preparatory  work  should  be  done  by  some- 
body else  than  the  workman  himself,  who,  while  this  is  being 
done  for  him,  is  keeping  his  machine  at  work  on  a  job  previ- 
ously prepared  in  the  same  manner.  Form  the  habit  of 
looking  upon  the  machine  as  the  real  producer  which  you 
must  keep  busy  every  minute  of  the  day,  and  the  machine 
tender  as  a  producer  only  while  he  is  engaged  in  tending  his 
machine,  and  therefore  as  a  non-producer  while  getting  ready 
for  a  new  job,  with  his  machine  standing  idle  waiting  for  that 
job.  Charging  the  man's  time  as  productive  while  he  is  thus 
engaged  in  preparatory  work  only,  is  merely  a  foolish  and 
misleading  way  of  keeping  down  the  ratio  of  the  so-called 
non-productive  pay-roll  to  the  productive  pay-roll. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  That  is  very  important  it  seems  to  me. 
I  am  connected  with  a  machinery  business,  and  I  had  that 
notion  of  the  non-producer  drilled  into  me  by  the  older 
generation,  a  sort  of  feeling  that  every  man  who  was  on  the 
place,  unless  he  was  actually  doing  something  on  the  product 
itself,  was  a  non-producer,  and  consequently  in  the  way.  I 


160  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

want  to  hear  somebody  bring  out  quite  clearly  just  that 
point  of  the  non-producer. 

MR.  BARTH  :  Nearly  everywhere  I  go,  the  feeling  you  speak 
of  exists.  Managers  try  to  gage  the  efficiency  of  their 
work  by  a  certain  " legitimate"  relation  between  their  non- 
productive and  productive  expenses,  but  while  such  a  ratio 
means  a  good  deal  when  the  line  between  the  two  is  well 
denned,  it  means  nothing  when  you  make  radical  changes  in 
the  way  of  handling  matters,  the  way  we  do. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  better  to  use  the  terms  indirect  and 
direct  expenses,  rather  than  non-productive  and  productive, 
for  all  necessary  expense  is  productive  in  some  way,  or  else  it 
would  not  be  incurred  at  all.  You  thus  class  even  the  most 
efficient  manager  as  a  non-producer,  while  the  large  salary  he 
receives  proves  that  he  is  the  most  productive  man  about  the 
establishment.  The  difference  between  him  and  one  of  your 
so-called  producers  is  merely  that  his  productiveness  cannot  be 
directly  recognized  in  the  various  work-orders,  while  that  of 
your  producer  can.  His  salary  has  therefore  to  reach  these  in 
an  "indirect"  way,  in  the  making  up  of  their  total  cost,  while 
the  wages  of  your  producer  reaches  them  directly. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  What  do  you  include  as  indirect  expense? 

Mr.  BARTH:  There  is  an  awful  pile  of  it,  I  can  tell  you. 
Indirect  expense  embraces  almost  everything  except  the  cost 
of  the  raw  materials  and  the  wages  of  those  who  work  directly 
upon  this. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Do  you  lump  your  helpers? 

MR.  BARTH:  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it  is  best  to  lump  them 
and  charge  them  indirectly. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Referring  to  the  statement  that  the  mental 
attitude  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  expense  of  the  intro- 
duction of  Scientific  Management,  I  should  like  to  learn  just 
what  the  mental  attitude  was  among  the  employees  in  your 
company  when  you  introduced  Scientific  Management? 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  Our  company  was  at  that  time  badly 
managed.  Our  men  previous  to  that  time  had  not  been 
treated  any  better  than  they  are  in  the  average  plant,  and 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  161 

certainly  not  so  well  as  in  many  other  plants  run  under  the 
old  style  of  management.  There  was  an  attitude  of  sus- 
picion which  resulted  in  more  or  less  opposition.  That 
opposition  and  suspicion  lasted  until  such  time  as  their 
mental  attitude  was  brought  around  to  the  point  where  they 
could  see  that  through  the  installation  of  this  type  of  manage- 
ment, they  as  well  as  the  management  would  be  benefited. 
In  other  words,  we  had  to  establish  a  feeling  of  confidence 
between  the  workmen  and  the  management  before  we  made 
very  rapid  progress,  but  in  order  to  establish  that  feeling  of 
confidence  we  also  had  to  make  some  progress.  We  gained 
their  confidence  partly  through  explanations  and  talks  and 
very  largely  through  object-lessons.  By  object-lessons  I 
mean  doing  such  things  as  made  their  work  easier,  such  as 
having  material  brought  to  them,  so  they  did  not  have  to 
hunt  the  foreman  up  when  they  ran  out  of  a  job;  and  having 
proper  tools  brought  to  them,  so  a  man  wasn't  compelled  to 
work  with  tools  unsuited  to  the  purpose.  In  many  ways  we 
made  their  work  easier.  It  all  tended  to  establish  a  certain 
amount  of  confidence  in  the  new  scheme,  and  the  further  we 
progressed  the  less  opposition  we  had. 

MR.  BROOKS:  How  many  men  did  you  have? 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  About    125,  possibly  150  men. 

MR.  BROOKS:  How  long  did  it  take  you  to  win  over  the 
men  to  a  feeling  of  confidence  in  the  new  system? 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  I  think  it  was  the  end  of  the  first  year 
before  the  men  were  working  for  the  thing  more  than  against 
it.  Some  men  saw  the  advantages  more  quickly  than  others. 
Conditions  will  be  found  to  be  different  in  almost  every 
establishment,  because  in  some  plants  the  confidence  of  the 
workman  is  already  possessed  by  the  management. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Where  there  is  something  like  1,000  men, 
would  it  take  correspondingly  longer  to  win  the  confidence 
of  the  men,  or  would  it  come  quickly? 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  I  don't  think  the  number  makes  much 
difference.  Mr.  Barth  recently  had  experience  with  a  plant 
employing  a  thousand. 


162  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  EARTH:  If  there  is  decided  trouble  it  is  rarely  with 
the  individual  workmen,  but  rather  with  foremen  and  super- 
intendents, who  in  having  their  duties  rearranged  fear  that 
their  services  are  eventually  to  be  done  away  with,  or  who 
feel  that  their  authority  is  being  reduced  by  such  rearrange- 
ments. In  the  twelve  years  I  have  been  connected  with 
this  work,  I  have  had  only  a  single  scrap  with  a  workman. 
He  was  a  touchy  young  fellow  whom  I  one  day  discovered 
turning  up  to  a  finish  the  two  ends  of  a  number  of  small 
axles  with  an  enlarged  diameter  in  the  middle,  without  first 
even  roughing  off  this  enlarged  middle  portion.  I  suggested 
to  him  that  this  procedure  was  not  a  very  wise  one,  and  that 
he  ought  to  rough  the  middle  portion  first,  so  as  to  have  the 
advantage  of  the  greater  stiffness  of  the  rough  axle  while 
performing  this  operation.  He  at  once  flared  up  and  told 
me  that  he  knew  what  he  was  about  and  did  not  propose  to 
be  told  by  me  or  anybody  else  how  to  do  his  work.  As  I 
had  spoken  only  kindly  to  him,  I  was  so  taken  back  that  I 
even  forgot  to  show  any  resentment,  and  merely  told  him  that 
he  was  very  unkind  in  answering  me  as  he  did,  and  that  he 
merely  succeeded  in  making  an  ass  of  himself,  just  the  same 
as  I  admitted  I  had  often  done  myself  when  a  young  man, 
and  perhaps  still  did  once  in  a  while.  This  made  him  cool 
down  some,  so  that  he  admitted  he  had  been  rather  hasty; 
but  when  I  told  him  that  if  he  would  take  up  his  work 
again  along  the  lines  I  had  suggested,  I  would  say  noth- 
ing to  his  immediate  superiors,  he  said  he  preferred  to  quit 
right  then,  as  he  had  already  made  up  his  mind  to  quit  any- 
way in  a  few  days.  I  then  left  him,  hunted  up  his  foreman, 
and  told  the  latter  the  whole  story,  adding  that  I  wanted 
him  to  tell  the  fellow  that  I  was  sorry  he  had  behaved  so 
badly,  and  that  if  he  ever  wanted  to  come  back  and  be  decent, 
he  could  have  his  place  back;  but  also  that  I  would  see  to 
it  that  he  would  not  get  employment  in  any  of  the  other 
departments  of  the  factory,  for  I  correctly  suspected  that 
this  was  what  he  had  in  mind.  After  lying  around  for  a 
week  in  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  get  into  one  of  the  other 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  163 

departments  in  which  a  personal  friend  of  his  was  foreman, 
he  went  to  his  original  home  in  a  neighboring  town  and  secured 
work,  but  evidently  not  to  his  liking;  for  about  two  months 
later  he  came  back  and  went  to  work  at  his  old  job. 

The  difficulty  which  has  appeared  lately  is  not  with  the 
individual  workmen,  but  with  the  unions  which  believe  they 
are  going  to  suffer  and  that  the  new  system  will  throw  half 
of  their  men  out  of  work.  They  are  afraid  that  by  men 
becoming  too  efficient  the  world's  work  will  be  done  with 
half  the  number  of  workmen,  and  that  hence  the  other  half 
will  become  an  enormous  array  of  unemployed.  This  is 
rather  natural,  for  with  our  periodical  business  depressions 
and  always  some  men  out  of  work,  it  is  hard  to  realize  that 
in  our  industrial  age  men  are  never  out  of  work  because  there 
is  not  enough  of  it  to  go  around,  but  merely  because  society 
is  still  so  poorly  organized  as  a  whole,  that  we  do  not  go  about 
the  world's  work,  which  is  always  on  the  increase,  in  a  sensi- 
ble way.  I  believe  that  increased  efficiency  all  around  will 
compel  a  speedier  recognition  and  solution  of  some  of  the 
larger  economic  questions  that  confront  us.  The  way  we  go 
about  the  matter,  we  cannot  very  well  have  any  trouble  with 
the  men  themselves,  because  over  a  long  period  we  make  no 
changes  which  effect  them  in  a  manner  to  which  they  can 
possibly  take  any  exception;  but  on  the  other  hand  we  make 
it  in  many  ways  easier  and  pleasanter  for  them  to  work  in 
the  establishment.  In  this  period  we  also  make  a  number  of 
personal  friends  among  them,  who  get  to  know  us  as  men  in 
whom  they  can  fully  confide,  and  as  men  who  they  realize 
are  actuated  by  high  motives  only,  and  therefore  not  likely 
to  do  anything  against  their  interests.  When  you  take  the 
next  step,  therefore,  and  require  a  man  to  do  a  certain  thing 
in  a  new  way,  he  will  usually  take  it  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Thus  we  had  no  trouble  at  the  Watertown  Arsenal  until  the 
labor  unions  got  together  and  protested  and  played  on  the 
feelings  of  the  men  there,  and  I  do  not  believe  the  trouble 
will  last  long  or  amount  to  much. 

MR.  BROOKS:  How  long  did  it  take  you  to  turn  over? 


164  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  EARTH:  We  worked  there  for  two  years  before  we 
asked  any  man  to  do  anything  in  a  different  way  from  what 
he  had  done  before.  We  began  with  the  store-room  and  the 
tool-room,  and  analyzed  and  symbolized  the  product  and  the 
machines,  and  got  a  planning  room  in  running  order. 

You  asked  about  the  expenses.  At  the  Watertown  Arsenal 
we  spent  $33,000  in  those  two  years,  of  which  $11,000  were 
chargeable  directly  to  the  introduction  of  the  system,  and 
$22,000  went  into  permanent  improvements  which  would 
not  have  been  made  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  system. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  How  many  men  did  you  say? 

MR.  EARTH:  About  500  men. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Is  that  the  concern  you  have  just  been 
speaking  about? 

MR.  EARTH:  Yes.  But  there  are  various  ways  of  going 
about  this  thing.  If  you  haven't  the  money  to  spend,  simply 
do  a  little  at  the  time  and  pay  for  it  as  you  go  along.  But 
if  you  have  the  money,  and  have  faith,  spend  your  money  as 
an  investment  and  take  it  back  in  a  term  of  years. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  I  anticipate  this  difficulty,  which  I  should 
like  to  get  cleared  up.  The  shop  I  operate  I  inherited  from 
my  grandfather,  and  a  great  many  traditions  have  grown  up 
in  seventy  years.  We  employ  in  the  neighborhood  of  300 
men,  and  I  anticipate  now  that  there  is  going  to  be  more 
or  less  difficulty  in  introducing  a  serious  revolution.  How 
would  you  go  about  that? 

MR.  EARTH:  What  kind  of  a  store-room  have  you?  Can 
any  man  go  there  who  needs  a  piece  of  machine  steel,  and 
pick  it  out  himself? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Oh,  no. 

MR.  EARTH:  If  a  man  cannot  do  that,  then  you  are  already 
pretty  well  off. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  No,  they  have  to  have  a  requisition. 

MR.  EARTH:  That  is  not  so  bad,— that  is  the  starting 
point.  What  about  your  orders?  Do  you  manufacture  a 
standard  product  for  stock,  or  only  as  you  get  orders,  or  a 
little  of  each? 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  165 

MR.  LINCOLN:  A  little  of  each;  we  make  cotton-mill 
machinery,  but  we  have  a  double  problem.  We  are  in  Fall 
River  and  we  make  looms  and  power  transmission  which  are 
standard.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  being  in  the  center  of 
the  cotton-milling  district,  we  have  a  large  repair  department. 

MR.  EARTH:  That  is,  a  man  comes  from  the  cotton-mill 
with  a  fifty-cent  job  and  expects  you  to  go  over  to  the  mill 
and  spend  $5  worth  of  time  and  labor  and  charge  only 
fifty  cents  for  it? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  There  is  that  double  situation  there. 

MR.  EARTH:  I  have  been  through  a  similar  factory,  but 
it  was  worse  than  yours,  because  anybody  could  anywhere 
pick  up  the  material  he  wanted.  It  was  the  worst-run  plant 
I  have  ever  seen  in  my  life.  The  management  knew  nothing 
about  the  shop.  It  was  simply  a  question  of  operating  on  a 
sick  patient,  —  either  to  kill  him  quickly,  or  bring  him  to; 
and  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  patient  is  alive 
today,  and  when  the  country's  business  revives  he  will  soon 
acquire  good  health.  At  any  rate  he  is  convalescent,  but  we 
came  pretty  near  killing  him. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  As  far  as  Mr.  Kendall's  analysis  of  this 
afternoon  goes,  my  shop  would  be  an  unsystematic  shop.  I 
have  had  traditions  to  fight  all  the  time;  we  have  many  old 
employees.  One  man,  for  instance,  used  to  come  down  once 
in  a  while  so  as  to  round  out  his  fifty  years,  but  that  is  a 
rare  exception.  However,  we  have  men  now  who  have  been 
there  twenty  and  thirty  years.  I  had  to  fight  such  men 
pretty  hard  to  get  in  any  sort  of  change,  but  it  is  now  a 
systematic  shop. 

MR.  EARTH:  Have  you  any  lists  of  materials  for  the 
foundry,  or  does  some  fellow  keep  it  in  his  head? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  The  order  begins  with  the  foundry  and 
goes  to  the  shop. 

MR.  EARTH:  Is  there  any  schedule,  or  is  delivery  made 
when  convenient? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  The  time  is  marked  when  the  work  is  to 
be  in  the  shop. 


166  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  EARTH:  You  evidently  have  a  pretty  good  shop  com- 
pared with  some.  A  very  unsystematic  shop  is  hard  to  deal 
with.  It  is  easier  for  us  to  go  to  a  shop  that  does  things 
some  fixed  way,  no  matter  how  primitive,  than  where  they 
have  absolutely  no  fixed  way.  One  of  the  greatest  difficulties 
of  the  unsystematized  place  is  that  everybody  in  his  own  way 
is  helping  the  firm  to  run  the  shop.  When  you  suggest 
what  they  should  do,  they  think  you  are  going  to  run  things 
to  the  devil.  If  you  have  any  sort  of  a  channel  through 
which  your  orders  pass,  you  have  a  good  beginning.  I  don't 
believe  your  situation  is  very  bad.  It  needs  further  develop- 
ment only.  When  the  work  comes  to  the  shop,  who  decides 
what  is  to  be  done  on  each  piece,  —  have  you  any  lists  of 
consecutive  operations,  like  turning,  milling,  etc.? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  When  it  gets  to  the  shop  it  is  up  to  the 
foreman. 

MR.  EARTH:  Does  he  have  any  schedule  to  work  to  or 
does  he  find  that  John,  say,  is  out  of  a  job,  and  then  go  on  a 
hunt  to  find  him  a  new  one? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  There  is  a  list  furnished  the  man  at  the 
mill  by  the  foreman,  —  a  list  of  the  things  expected  from  the 
foundry. 

MR.  EARTH:  Has  anybody  ever  looked  over  the  machinery 
to  see  whether  your  operations  are  performed  in  a  reasonable 
time? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  No;  that  is  just  the  thing  I  got  out  of  this 
conference  this  afternoon. 

MR.  EARTH:  The  proper  analysis  of  the  machine  equip- 
ment and  its  respeeding  to  make  full  use  of  modern  high-speed 
tools,  and  finally,  the  education  of  the  men  to  appreciate 
their  possibilities,  is  a  big  job  even  now,  though  not  so  big 
as  it  was  when  the  high-speed  steel  first  got  on  the  market; 
and  I  shall  tell  you  of  a  case  in  which  I  showed  a  first-class 
lathe  hand  how  to  run  a  high-speed  tool  forty-eight  times 
faster  than  I  found  him  doing,  though  the  shop  had  had 
high-speed  tools  for  two  years  previous  to  my  coming  there. 
However,  I  don't  believe  I  shall  ever  again  come  across  a 
case  so  glaringly  bad  as  that. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  167 

This  man's  machine  had  already  been  respeeded  and  "put 
on  a  slide-rule,"  though  so  far  we  had  not  gotten  around  to 
make  any  use  of  it,  and  did  not  expect  to  for  a  considerable 
time  to  come;  and  I  merely  happened,  in  passing  by  the 
machine,  to  notice  that  the  tool  was  producing  only  a  very 
small  chip  at  a  very  low  speed,  and  doing  it  hi  such  a  way 
as  to  indicate  that  the  material  was  a  very  soft  grade  of  steel 
only. 

After  a  little  preliminary  skirmishing  with  the  operator,  I 
produced  the  slide-rule  for  his  lathe;  and,  making  a  con- 
servative guess  at  the  hardness  of  the  material,  I  set  the  rule 
for  such  material,  for  the  diameter  of  work,  and  such  depth 
of  cut  as  I  found  the  tool  was  running.  The  dictates  of  the 
rule  were  a  spindle  speed  six  times  faster  than  was  being  used, 
and  a  feed  eight  times  coarser,  making  a  total  of  forty-eight 
times  the  rate  of  cutting. 

In  asserting  that  this  speed  and  this  feed  would  be  all  right, 
the  operator  thought  I  had  gone  clean  crazy,  and  when  the 
tool  under  these  ran  the  full  length  of  the  cut  under  a  beauti- 
ful blue  chip  of  a  kind  he  had  never  seen  before,  and  of  the 
possibility  of  which  he  had  never  dreamt,  he  did  not  know 
what  to  make  of  it.  However,  I  soon  satisfied  him  by  telling 
him  about  the  discovery  and  development  of  the  high-speed 
steel,  and  that  the  principal  reason  why  I  was  around  there 
was  my  special  knowledge  of  what  could  be  done  with  this 
steel.  Also,  to  make  him  feel  perfectly  happy  about  it,  we 
at  once  got  after  his  job  and  set  a  task  with  bonus  for  it, 
which  resulted  in  his  making  $i  extra  per  day  for  weeks  at  a 
stretch,  and  in  a  reduction  of  the  flat  labor  cost  to  the  com- 
pany from  a  $1.50  per  piece  of  his  work,  to  half  a  dollar. 

Is  your  line  shafting  running  as  it  did,  say  fifteen  years 
ago? 

MR.  LINCOLN:  No,  we  use  high-speed  steel. 

MR.  EARTH:  You  seem  to  be  in  pretty  good  shape,  in 
spite  of  your  three  generations  of  traditions. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  May  I  ask,  Mr.  Chairman,  what  the 
plan  of  procedure  would  be  in  such  a  plant  with  the  traditions 


l68  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

of  three  generations,  where  anybody  could  get  material  —  a 
plant  without  a  fence  around  it? 

MR.  EARTH:  You  must  simply  tell  them  to  stop  it,  and 
make  them  understand  if  they  don't  get  over  it  they  cannot 
stay  with  you.  We  allow  old  orders  to  go  on  in  that  way, 
but  when  new  orders  come  in,  the  new  material  is  put  in 
boxes  and  tagged  and  there  is  no  excuse.  When  anything 
comes  along  tagged,  it  means  the  workmen  must  keep  their 
hands  off  until  they  receive  a  definite  order  to  use  it.  It 
requires  a  great  deal  of  patience  to  overcome  habit. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  Mr.  Earth,  the  pith  of  what  I  have 
heard  seems  to  be  that  we  start  Scientific  Management  with 
a  planning  department.  I  want  to  know  how  we  arrive  at 
the  planning  department?  Where  do  we  begin? 

MR.  EARTH:  The  best  way  to  understand  it  is  to  visit  one 
of  our  shops.  In  the  first  place  we  have  to  get  the  space,  a 
fairly  large  space,  for  we  frequently  have  as  many  men  col- 
lected in  the  planning  department  as  the  establishment  has 
in  the  shops.  We  partition  off  some  corner  of  the  shop  for 
the  purpose,  or  else  build  an  annex,  and  gather  into  that  room 
gradually  all  the  clerical  and  engineering  force  necessary  for 
the  planning,  so  that  in  the  shop  itself  we  have  only  those 
employees  concerned  with  the  mechanical  processes.  We 
have  also  certain  foremen  who  are  middlemen  between  the 
planning  department  and  the  men  who  run  the  machines. 
The  planning  work  is  done  as  much  as  possible  in  the  one 
room.  Sometimes  in  a  large  plant  we  have  to  have  several 
rooms,  but  we  always  refer  to  the  Planning  Department  even 
if  we  have  it  divided  and  in  three  or  four  places.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  store-room.  The  desirable  thing  is  to  have  the 
stores  in  one  big  room.  But  I  know  plants  in  which  they 
have  several  store-rooms,  but  always  with  one  store-keeper 
in  charge  of  all. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  How  do  you  arrive  at  the  personnel  of 
the  planning  department?  Suppose  we  want  to  get  Scientific 
Management  in  our  plant  and  do  not  want  any  external 
help.  How  shall  we  go  about  it? 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  169 

MR.  EARTH:  To  do  it  entirely  yourself  will  be  a  little 
difficult.  My  plan  would  be  to  utilize  your  own  men  and 
not  hire  outside  men.  For  planning  machine-work  get  your 
best  machinists  from  the  shop  and  put  them  in  the  planning 
room.  In  the  last  big  planning  department  I  built  up  there 
isn't  a  single  man  in  it  who  didn't  come  out  of  the  shop. 

That  has  many  advantages.  The  men  always  look  upon 
it  as  a  promotion,  and  you  can  avail  yourself  of  the  knowl- 
edge they  have.  You  have  in  them  a  product  which  has 
been  developed  during  many  years.  When  you  have  that 
condition  it  is  very  easy  to  make  a  planning  department. 

MR.  SCHTJMAKER:  Suppose  you  have  an  unsystematized 
shop  serving  as  a  maintenance  department  for  an  unsys- 
tematized mill.  Would  you  start  in  the  manner  which  you 
have  described,  or  would  you  start  with  a  reorganization? 

MR.  EARTH:  You  can  attack  that  problem  in  two  distinct 
ways.  If  the  mill  is  not  systematized  you  might  begin  with 
the  mill  and  let  the  repair-shop  go  the  old  way;  or  you  might 
begin  with  the  machine  shop  and  consider  the  mill  as  if  it  were 
a  thousand  miles  away.  It  doesn't  make  much  difference. 

MR.  PEARSON:  In  a  case  of  that  sort,  wouldn't  you  ulti- 
mately arrive  at  a  planning  department  covering  both  mill 
and  the  shop? 

MR.  EARTH:  Yes,  but  there  is  a  limit  to  the  size  of  a 
planning  department.  When  the  plant  is  very  large  it  will 
need  a  central  planning  department  with  sub-planning  de- 
partments. Each  particular  establishment  must  have  its 
own  treatment.  That  is  where  experience  comes  in,  the 
experience  one  gets  by  making  failures.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  man  going  into  a  new  plant  and  organizing  it  in  a 
predetermined  way;  one  cannot  look  into  a  situation  and  see 
so  clearly  before  he  starts  that  he  will  not  make  some  mistakes. 

MR.  BROOKS:  What  is  the  advantage  in  putting  in  a  task 
man? 

MR.  EARTH:  There  is  always  room  for  study.  Only  after 
a  thorough  study  has  been  made  will  you  come  close  to  the 
proper  task. 


170  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  BROOKS:  Could  you  have  in  connection  with  the 
task  system  a  man  who  hires  four  or  five  men  under  him? 

MR.  BARTH:  That  is  one  of  the  things  we  do  not  believe 
in  —  the  contract  system.  We  do  not  believe  in  any  middle- 
man between  the  management  and  the  workers.  He  is 
getting  something  out  of  the  men.  We  want  the  men  to  get  it. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Then  you  favor  only  individual  piece- 
workers? 

MR.  BARTH:  The  contract  system  is  a  weakness  of  the 
management.  A  man  for  doing  something  unnecessary  gets 
a  share  of  the  product. 

MR.  GREEN:  When  an  efficiency  engineer  comes  to  the 
plant  to  work  a  betterment,  what  is  the  ideal  relation  he 
should  bear  to  the  existing  organization? 

MR.  BARTH:  I  wish  I  knew.  I  think  I  have  an  excellent 
relation  at  the  present  time  in  one  of  the  plants  I  go  to.  This 
company  was  able  to  take  one  of  its  own  men  who  had  be- 
come thoroughly  imbued  with  their  ideas,  —  he  wrote  me  a 
letter  and  said  he  had  struggled  all  his  life  to  get  some  work 
that  he  could  put  his  heart  into;  that  now  he  had  found  it 
and  life  was  worth  living.  He  is  the  man  whom  I  instruct; 
I  deal  rarely  with  anybody  except  him.  He  is  the  middle- 
man between  the  concern  and  me. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  You  are  acknowledging  the  middleman 
now. 

MR.  BARTH:  As  a  temporary  thing.  The  systematizer  is 
not  a  part  of  the  organization.  He  is  to  be  kicked  out  just 
as  soon  as  you  can  get  along  without  him.  If  a  systematizer 
is  trying  to  put  the  plan  in  by  himself,  it  drops  down  as  soon 
as  he  leaves,  and  he  has  to  come  back  and  put  it  in  again. 
But  a  man  on  the  spot  furthers  it  in  his  absence.  I  recom- 
mend to  you  not  to  get  anybody  who  undertakes  to  put  a 
system  in  with  his  own  help,  or  by  himself,  but  get  him  simply 
as  a  man  who  is  to  coach  one  of  your  own  best  men.  Pick 
out  the  best  man  you  have  —  the  fellow  who  wants  to  do  it 
—  and  have  him  learn  to  take  the  place  of  the  systematizer. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  I  want  to  ask  in   connection  with   the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  171 

planning  department  what  happens  to  the  old  system  of 
superintendent  and  foreman.  Do  they  become  members  of 
the  planning  department? 

MR.  BARTH:  Yes,  or  become  foremen  in  a  new  way  — 
functional  foremen.  That  merely  means  that  instead  of 
having  charge  of  a  group  of  men  in  all  their  relations  to  the 
management,  they  have  each  charge  of  a  function  in  all  of 
its  relations.  So  we  have  several  groups  of  workmen,  and 
instead  of  having  a  foreman  for  each,  there  is  one  foreman  to 
perform  a  certain  function  for  all  of  those  groups;  just  as  in 
school  it  is  supposed  to  be  of  more  benefit  to  have  specialized 
teachers,  a  teacher  for  this,  that  or  another  subject. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Don't  these  different  foremen  have  more  or 
less  friction  with  one  another? 

Mr.  BARTH:  Absolutely  none  in  the  long  run.  The 
change  you  make  is  an  occasion  for  temporary  friction  — 
while  the  foremen  are  learning  their  respective  functions  — 
but  that  does  not  last  very  long.  Whenever  there  is  fric- 
tion we  find  that  it  is  because  some  man  feels  that  his  dignity 
has  been  hurt,  feels  that  his  authority  has  been  curtailed  by 
his  being  limited  to  perform  one  function  instead  of  a  lot  of 
them.  We  point  out  to  such  a  man  that  his  new  duties  will 
require  all  the  attention  of  one  man.  He  soon  finds  he  has 
enough  to  do  to  perform  his  own  function.  There  is  no  real 
ground  for  friction. 

For  instance,  in  the  machine-shop  the  first  functional  foreman 
dealing  with  the  men  is  what  we  call  the  gang-boss.  He  sees 
to  it  that  the  men  always  get  the  material  they  are  to  work  on, 
and  all  the  means  for  doing  it  —  tools,  drawings,  etc.  After 
a  workman  has  been  shown  how  to  set  the  job  up  on  the  ma- 
chine, this  foreman's  duty  ends.  Then  comes  the  speed-boss, 
who  has  charge  of  the  work  when  the  machine  is  actually  in 
operation.  Next  comes  the  inspector.  The  only  chance  for 
friction  is  when  the  gang-boss  has  not  fully  verified  the  tools 
and  the  other  boss  tells  him  he  has  not  given  the  right  tools. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Where  does  the  adjustment  of  the  friction 
come  in? 


172  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  EARTH:  Through  the  disciplinarian.  In  most  cases 
the  chief  gang-boss  or  shop  foreman,  who  is  the  superior  of  all 
these  men,  will  settle  the  little  disputes.  When  the  friction 
is  big  enough  Jie  will  take  the  disputants  out  and  have  a 
hearing  before  the  disciplinarian. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Will  you  give  us  the  organization  of  a 
planning  department?  Take  a  plant  employing,  say,  300 
men,  what  is  the  organization  of  the  planning  department? 

MR.  EARTH:  There  is  no  such  a  thing  as  a  made-to-order 
planning  room.  So  I  don't  know  that  I  can  answer  the 
question,  but  I  have  one  plant  in  mind.  The  manager  is  in 
charge  of  the  whole  plant,  but  he  controls  it  through  the 
planning  department.  The  commercial  department  sends 
the  orders.  The  plant  can  either  ship  the  goods  directly 
from  stock  or  manufacture  them.  When  an  order  comes,  if 
for  goods  manufactured  and  in  stock,  it  goes  to  the  super- 
intendent of  production.  He  looks  it  over  and  may  not  be 
sure  there  is  stock  enough.  In  a  little  corner  of  the  planning 
department  are  the  clerks  who  have  the  stock-sheets.  The 
production  superintendent  will  send  over  to  find  whether  we 
have  that  machine  in  stock,  and  if  we  have  it  these  stock- 
sheet  clerks  on  the  strength  of  the  order  will  issue  a  requisi- 
tion on  the  store-room,  and  the  store-room  will  deliver  the 
machine  over  to  the  shipping  department.  The  document 
will  be  sent  along  with  the  things.  If  we  don't  have  the 
machine  ordered,  and  it  has  to  be  manufactured,  of  course 
the  drawings  will  be  made  first,  and  everything  of  that  kind. 
But  suppose  it  is  a  machine  we  have  made  before  and  we  have 
the  drawings;  it  is  then  only  a  question  of  manufacturing. 
On  the  strength  of  the  shipping  order  is  made  out  a  manu- 
facturing order.  The  manufacturing  order  is  put  on  record, 
and  then  the  next  step  is  to  get  all  the  necessary  material, 
send  it  to  the  shop,  and  see  that  all  the  necessary  operations 
are  performed,  that  the  parts  are  put  together  and  then  run 
into  the  shipping  department. 

Each  machine  to  be  manufactured  has  for  it  what  is  called 
an  assembling  chart.  This  is  an  analysis  which  shows  every 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  173 

piece  —  with  every  operation  on  it  —  in  the  order  in  which 
it  must  come  through  the  shop,  that  it  may  be  assembled  in 
the  simplest  manner. 

MR.  FRY:  Isn't  all  that  immensely  complicated  in  a  shop 
where  there  is  a  foundry,  a  wood-working  department  and  a 
box  shop? 

MR.  BARTH:  If  you  have  distinct  departments  like  that, 
you  have  sub-planning  departments.  The  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  shop  is  frequently  such  that  we  cannot  make  a 
big  central  planning  department;  but  the  main  control  conies 
from  it.  The  foundry,  for  instance,  would  be  furnished 
with  a  list  of  the  pieces  wanted;  how  to  get  them  is  decided 
by  the  foundry  itself  and  its  own  planning  department. 

MR.  BATEMAN:  Has  the  problem  ever  been  worked  out 
with  sub-planning  departments  in  the  shop?  You  actually 
have  had  those  conditions? 

MR.  BARTH:  Yes,  the  minute  the  shop  gets  big  you  have 
a  general  planning  department  and  sub-departments  in  other 
places,  but  the  sub-departments  have  to  work  from  schedules 
prepared  by  the  main  planning  department,  just  the  same 
as  the  planning  department  must  accommodate  itself  to  the 
customer  on  the  outside. 

MR.  BATEMAN:  The  central  planning  department  would 
simply  send  the  order  to  the  sub-department? 

MR.  BARTH:  Yes,  for  things  going  out  the  next  day  or 
next  week.  Revise  the  list  every  day,  week  or  hour,  accord- 
ing to  the  conditions,  and  if  a  repair-job  conies  in,  get  busy 
at  once. 

MR.  BROOKS:  Do  a  great  many  departments  in  a  busi- 
ness tend  to  complicate  the  situation  so  to  make  this  thing 
impracticable? 

MR.  BARTH:  I  have  never  seen  any  such  plant,  but  I 
have  reason  to  believe  that  the  organization  of  the  planning 
department  would  take  longer. 

MR.  BATEMAN:  If  you  are  buying  your  castings  outside 
would  you  make  your  purchasing  department  a  sub-planning 
department? 


174  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  EARTH:  That  depends;  if  you  buy  from  a  great 
many  foundries,  and  buy  out  of  town,  then  you  must  organ- 
ize the  purchasing  department  as  you  would  any  other 
department. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  How  much  is  bonus  payment  a  part  of 
Scientific  Management? 

MR.  EARTH:  It  does  not  belong  necessarily  to  it.  There 
is  not  a  single  detail  we  practise  which  is  a  necessary 
element  of  Scientific  Management.  Scientific  Management 
means  certain  principles,  and  the  vehicle  of  those  principles 
can  be  almost  anything.  I  am  constantly  modifying  the 
details  of  the  system.  The  trouble  with  all  systems  of  pay- 
ing a  man  is,  you  haven't  attempted  to  get  at  how  long  it 
takes  to  do  the  job. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  Do  I  understand  that  the  payment  of 
the  bonus  is  simply  to  make  the  path  towards  Scientific 
Management  easier? 

MR.  EARTH:  No,  the  payment  of  a  bonus  does  not  come 
till  we  set  the  task.  After  all,  what  you  pay  the  workman 
is  the  smallest  end  in  most  manufacturing  costs.  The  indi- 
rect expenses  are  usually  so  great,  —  the  depreciation  on  the 
plant,  taxes,  insurance,  president's  salary,  the  commercial 
end,  and  certain  waste  —  that  what  the  workman  gets  is  the 
small  end  of  the  whole  cost. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  Eventually  all  our  activities  will  be 
under  Scientific  Management.  Then  the  20  per  cent  bonus 
will  be  received  by  everybody,  and  cease  to  be  a  bonus. 

MR.  EARTH:  What  will  eventually  come  of  that  is  hard 
to  say. 

MR.  SCHUMAKER:  I  brought  up  this  question  because  all 
I  have  heard  of  Scientific  Management  has  been  associated 
with  the  bonus. 

MR.  EARTH:  Our  method  is  called  scientific  because  it 
determines  exactly  —  scientifically  —  the  length  of  time  in 
which  a  man  can  do  a  piece  of  work,  and  that  permits  a  wage 
proportional  to  the  workman's  contribution.  I  do  not  care 
so  much  about  the  employer  —  except  as  an  engineer  who  is 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  175 

doing  a  nice  piece  of  work  for  him  —  as  about  giving  the 
employee  more  money  and  making  his  condition  more  toler- 
able and  himself  happier.  The  most  attractive  thing  is,  that 
men  dare  to  be  frank  instead  of  hypocrites  and  liars,  and 
acknowledge  absolutely  what  can  be  done;  for  in  spite  of 
the  opposition  we  met  with  for  a  while,  we  have  not  failed 
to  make  everybody  our  friend. 


II.  TEXTILE  MANUFACTURE 

LEADER,   EUGENE   SZEPESI 
Stepesi  6r  Farr,  Textile  Engineers,  Boston 

MR.  SZEPESI:  My  duties  are  simply  to  lead  you  in  putting 
questions  and  clearing  up  matters  regarding  Scientific  Manage- 
ment in  the  operation  of  a  textile  mill.  Every  mill  man 
knows  very  well,  even  in  cotton  or  wool  or  worsted,  finishing, 
bleaching  or  dyeing,  that  there  is  a  best  way  to  do  a  thing. 
Mr.  Emerson  says  there  is  a  best  way  even  to  boil  an  egg, 
and  that  is  a  fact.  As  you  remember,  Mr.  Taylor  mentioned 
last  evening  that  ordinary  shoveling  is  artistic  work,  and 
told  how  he  reduced  the  load  from  thirty-eight  to  twenty-one 
pounds  and  increased  the  efficiency  steadily.  He  found  that 
twenty-one  pounds  is  just  the  right  quantity  for  a  man  to 
shovel. 

Now  let  us  see  what  a  man  can  do,  for  instance  in  the 
cotton-mill.  Here  is  one  proposition.  Recently  I  developed 
Scientific  Management — I  give  it  that  name,  because  I  can- 
not find  a  better  one — in  a  mill.  The  winding  department 
is  run  with  a  certain  degree  of  efficiency;  the  average  is  56 
per  cent.  For  the  Foster  winder,  which  is  well  known  to  us, 
for  a  certain  number  —  for  instance,  number  20  2-ply  cotton 
— the  girl  is  tending  twenty-five  spindles.  I  asked,  "Why  is 
a  girl  tending  twenty-five  spindles  on  20  double  cotton  yarn?  " 
The  answer  was,  "Because  we  cannot  split  a  machine."  I 
want  to  tell  you  what  we  have  done  to  find  out  how  many 


176  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

spindles  should  be  tended  by  a  girl  on  a  Foster  winder.  I 
knew  that  20  double  cotton  yarn  is  equal  to  8,400  yards  single 
yarn.  I  knew  by  experiment  that  the  variation  in  length  is 
from  3  per  cent  to  6  per  cent.  The  percentage  permitted  is 
5  per  cent  which  is  equal  to  420  yards.  The  result  is  that  I 
have  a  yardage  of  7,980  yards  of  cotton  on  a  Foster  winder 
which  is  run  at  130  feet  per  minute.  These  are  the  facts.  I 
have  cotton  yarn,  I  have  a  machine ;  what  is  the  duty  of  an 
operative  in  tending  the  Foster  winders?  I  am  simply  taking 
the  Foster  winder  as  an  example,  but  the  same  principle  applies 
to  everything.  First  of  all,  she  has  to  beat  out  the  skein. 
Looking  at  the  operation,  I  found  the  girl  was  beating  the  skein 
without  knowing  why  she  was  doing  the  operation.  I  asked 
various  girls  the  question,  "Why  do  you  beat  the  skein?  " 
"Because  the  foreman  told  me  to,"  was  one  reply.  Another 
one,  "I  don't  know."  So  I  had  to  teach  the  girls  why  and 
how  to  beat  the  skein.  That  operation  is  consuming  a  cer- 
tain time.  I  established  a  standard  of  forty-five  hundredths 
of  a  minute  to  open  the  skein,  —  a  cross-wound  skein  popu- 
larly known  as  "grand  reel"  —  and  lay  it  flat  and  find  both 
ends.  What  is  the  next  operation?  To  put  it  on  the  reel. 
Now,  we  are  all  individuals  and  we  have  some  individuality 
about  our  work.  Some  girls  are  using  from  one-tenth  up 
to  one  minute  to  put  a  skein  on  the  reel.  So  I  established  a 
standard  by  which  the  girl  can  put  the  skein  on  the  reel,  in 
the  same  condition  as  she  has  obtained  it  through  beating 
without  disturbing  the  ends,  in  one-quarter  of  a  minute. 

The  skeins  are  wound  up  and  new  skeins  have  to  be  joined, 
or  the  skein  breaks.  There  is  an  average  frequency  of  break- 
ages. I  have  made  time-studies  by  the  thousands  to  find  out 
what  is  the  real  average.  In  every  thirty-two  minutes,  on 
the  average,  a  thread  will  break ;  provided  the  skein  is  properly 
beaten  and  the  machine  up  to  the  highest  standard.  So  that 
is  another  operation.  Dividing  the  number  of  yards  on  the 
machine,  which  was  7,980,  by  130,  the  number  of  feet  per 
minute  at  which  the  winder  runs,  you  get  a  certain  factor  by 
which  you  can  determine  how  many  times  a  girl  has  to  change 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  177 

a  reel.     In  the  same  way,  you  determine  how  many  times  a 
girl  has  to  beat  the  skein. 

Another  factor  which  came  in  was  the  moisture.  I  found 
that  in  the  dye-house  they  extracted  the  moisture,  after  dye- 
ing, without  a  right  standard;  the  yarn  was  too  dry  and  broke 
easily.  They  put  in  a  humidifying  system  to  get  back  into 
the  skeins  again  the  moisture  they  had  extracted  unscien- 
tifically; so  breaks  and  time  and  expense  were  saved.  The 
cross-bands  on  the  reels  should  be  round,  without  a  knot,  and 
they  should  be  absolutely  clean.  By  giving  attention  to  these 
factors  you  can  produce  a  quantity  on  a  Foster  winder  about 
50  per  cent  higher  than  the  highest  standard  ever  established 
by  Foster  or  any  other  machine  manufacturer. 

I  am  giving  that  as  an  illustration  of  what  Scientific  Manage- 
ment in  the  cotton  industry  or  in  the  woolen  industry  can  ac- 
complish. I  apply  the  same  thing  to  a  dye-house  whether  I  am 
dyeing  by  the  piece  or  in  the  yarn.  I  can  use  it  for  the  picker- 
room  as  well  as  for  the  carding-room,  for  the  flyer-room,  for  the 
spinning-room,  for  the  weaving-shed,  for  finishing  and  bleach- 
ing and  so  on  up  to  the  packing — even  for  the  yard-gangs. 

I  recently  went  into  a  large  cotton-mill  and  had  to  wait 
for  the  agent.  I  was  sitting  in  the  office  and  looking  out 
into  the  yard.  A  carpenter  went  to  the  next  building  to  fix 
a  door.  A  board  had  been  damaged  in  some  way.  He  first 
went  around  and  made  measurements,  then  he  went  back  to 
the  shop  to  get  the  board,  which  proved  to  be  too  heavy; 
then  he  went  back  again  to  get  help.  The  whole  time  re- 
quired to  fix  that  board,  if  there  had  been  proper  planning, 
should  have  been  about  ten  minutes.  That  man  spent  nearly 
an  hour  and  a  half.  That  is  again  a  lack  of  planning  and 
despatching;  whether  it  is  a  cotton-mill  or  a  restaurant 
or  a  railroad  or  a  government,  the  principles  of  Scientific 
Management  can  be  applied  just  as  well. 

You  heard  Mr.  Taylor  and  Mr.  Gantt  and  Mr.  Emerson 
giving  plenty  of  definitions  of  Scientific  Management,  and  I 
am  just  asking  you  to  discuss  what  can  be  done  with  Scien- 
tific Management  and  proper  organization  in  the  cotton-mill. 


178  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

We  have  here  Mr.  Patterson,  whom  I  ask  to  have  the 
kindness  to  start  the  discussion. 

Mr.  PATTERSON:  Mr.  Szepesi  has  been  talking  about  the 
operation  of  spindles  by  employees,  and  I  want  to  call  atten- 
tion to  a  report  which  has  been  made  to  the  British  Board 
of  Trade,  a  very  interesting  report  and  very  comprehensive, 
which  mentions  the  number  of  spindles  which  are  operated 
in  various  countries.  England,  I  think,  has  from  3,500 
to  4,000  spindles  per  person.  France  jumps  to  between 
5,000  and  6,000,  Germany  a  little  higher  still,  while  Italy 
has  about  11,000.  The  United  States  comes  just  above 
England,  but  has  not  quite  the  efficiency  that  England  has. 

Mr.  Taylor  made  a  remark  about  sharing  the  responsibili- 
ties. That  is  a  thing  which  is  not  done  now  in  the  textile  mills. 
The  executive  assumes  a  fractional  part  only  of  the  responsi- 
bility assumed  in  other  industries.  In  these  you  find  planning 
departments  and  other  kindred  departments  laying  out  all  the 
work,  and  if  there  are  any  mistakes  it  is  to  the  discredit  of 
the  management.  As  a  rule,  you  will  find  in  textile  mills 
that  planning  is  left  largely  to  the  employees.  The  manage- 
ment tell  them  that  they  want  so  many  thousand  pieces  of  cloth 
a  week  and  it  is  left  to  the  overseer  to  get  it  out.  He  is  some- 
times told  how  many  looms  he  can  run;  sometimes  he  is  not. 
But  the  responsibility  is  not  assumed  by  the  management  in 
the  textile  industry  to  the  degree  that  it  should  be  assumed. 

The  first  principle  of  Scientific  Management  that  Mr. 
Taylor  mentioned  was  to  gather  in  the  rule-of-thumb  in- 
formation. I  have  been  working  in  textile  mills  somewhat 
as  Mr.  Szepesi  has  all  my  life,  and  I  find  that  the  information 
which  it  is  necessary  to  have  is  not  in  the  offices.  As  some 
of  the  speakers  have  said,  you  must  ask  the  overseer  what 
method  is  to  be  followed.  This  is  one  of  the  things  which  I 
am  trying  to  do  now,  to  gather  the  information  into  the 
office  so  that  the  mills  can  be  run  completely  from  the  office. 
It  is  a  large  undertaking.  I  have  not  set  a  rate  of  any  sort 
and  I  have  been  at  it  for  over  two  years. 

One  of  the  ways  in  which  I  am  gathering  this  information 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  179 

is  by  establishing  standards  through  all  our  plants  for  stand- 
ardizing purposes,  also  for  cost  purposes.  It  is  said  that  the 
costs  are  incidental :  they  are  to  a  certain  extent,  but  they  are 
a  very  large  incident.  The  prices  in  textile  mills  are  all 
made  before  the  goods  are  sold  and  they  are  all  based  upon 
estimates.  There  are  few  costs  used  hi  the  textile  industry. 
The  costs  that  they  now  have  are  made  up  semiannually  or 
annually  and  are  based  upon  estimates  which  are  made  at 
the  time  the  cloths  are  first  introduced,  multiplied  by  the 
yards  made,  perhaps,  and  then  an  adjustment  made  to  equal 
the  actual  expenditures.  You  will  find  that  method  in  use 
in  most  of  the  textile  mills. 

People  ask,  "What  good  are  costs  if  they  are  not  got 
accurately?  The  goods  are  not  sold  accordingly  to  those 
costs. "  That  is  very  true,  but  there  is  a  deficiency  in  the 
textile  industry  which  is  a  very  marked  one.  We  are  much 
behind  the  steel  and  shoe  industries.  We  are  now  where 
they  began.  We  are  not  getting  our  operation  statistics 
accurately:  we  are  only  getting  our  balance  sheets  semi- 
annually or  annually.  They  can  be  obtained  monthly  and 
are  being  obtained  monthly  in  two  textile  mills  that  I  know 
of,  but  I  know  of  only  two  in  this  country.  We  have  to  have, 
with  those,  running  inventories.  Beyond  the  current  costs 
and  the  running  expenses,  the  textile  mills  today  have  most 
of  the  information  that  is  essential,  but  those  two  are  the 
stumbling  blocks.  You  have  to  standardize  methods  to  be 
up-to-date,  and,  after  obtaining  those  two,  start  your  scientific 
methods.  But  I  feel  that  you  have  to  know  what  you  are 
doing  and  have  been  doing  before  you  can  take  intelligently 
those  steps,  excepting  in  isolated  cases. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  management  is  the  hardest  to 
handle.  That  is  pretty  true;  I  think  that  is  one  of  the 
greatest  obstacles  to  be  encountered  by  any  one  installing 
new  methods.  That  point  was  made  by  both  Mr.  Taylor 
and  Mr.  Emerson.  The  textile  industry  is  considered  one 
of  the  most  conservative,  and  I  know  it  takes  a  great  deal  of 
tact  sometimes  to  avoid  trouble. 


l8o  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

It  was  stated  that  in  some  industries  there  is  one  man  in 
three  employed  on  the  side  of  the  management.  If  you  would 
talk  of  any  such  proportion  as  that  at  the  outset  with  the 
textile  manager,  he  would  not  give  you  a  hearing.  The  cost 
of  installation  is  probably  the  first  thing  the  textile  man 
inquires  about  when  investigating  any  system;  and  it  is  a 
very  difficult  problem  for  a  manufacturer  to  approach,  be- 
cause there  are  no  set  standards  of  procedure.  An  engineer 
will  frequently  be  asked,  "What  can  you  do  for  me?"  He 
does  not  know;  he  has  never  seen  the  manufacturer's  plant, 
perhaps;  he  cannot  give  an  idea  what  the  cost  would  be; 
he  wants  to  go  in  and  try.  Then  the  next  step  is  usually  to 
set  a  limit  upon  what  the  first  outlay  will  be.  After  that  he 
probably  makes  a  diagnosis  of  the  manufacturer's  require- 
ments. Following  that,  usually  the  cost  estimate  is  made,  so 
much  a  month  for  so  many  men,  the  items  not  stated  but  the 
gross  sum  stated;  then  the  manufacturer  wants  to  know 
whether  it  is  all  worth  while.  That  is  a  thing  which  he  will 
have  to  judge  for  himself.  He  can  tell  only  whether  it  is 
desirable  for  him  to  have  modern  methods  and,  if  he  has 
them,  whether  he  will  use  them,  and  whether  he  has  men 
who  are  able  to  digest  them  and  apply  them  successfully  to 
his  business. 

Mr.  Emerson  said  that  in  the  machine-shops  he  found  a 
machine  running  at  an  efficiency  of  one  and  a  half  per 
cent.  The  arguments  which  the  master  mechanic  put  up  to 
him  are  typical  of  what  he  will  get  in  the  textile  industry. 
Do  you  appreciate  the  conditions  in  this  industry?  Every- 
body thinks  that  the  need  of  his  particular  industry  is  different 
from  that  of  any  other,  and  that  his  problems  will  have  to 
be  met  separately.  As  a  rule,  the  problems  in  the  majority 
of  these  various  kinds  of  business  are  all  the  same, 
though  called  by  different  names, — talked  about  in  different 
languages.  The  solutions  are  largely  the  same. 

I  have  been  working  now  for  the  past  two  years  with  the 
Pacific  Mills,  and  the  greater  part  of  my  efforts  recently 
has  been  devoted  to  preparing  for  a  new,  large  print-works, 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  181 

in  order  that  that  may  be  started  correctly.  The  method  of 
procedure  has  been  first  to  arrange  for  the  collection  of  all 
expense,  and  before  that  I  had  to  arrange  for  an  analysis  of 
every  job  in  the  plant;  in  all  the  organization  in  fact  — 
cotton-mills,  worsted-mills  and  print-works.  Those  items  of 
the  analysis  have  been  all  grouped  under  departments  which 
have  been  numbered  —  worsted  department,  cotton  depart- 
ment, and  print-works  —  and  then  each  room  given  a  num- 
ber under  that.  There  are  seven  numbers,  identical  in  each 
room  in  the  organization;  these  are  for  overseers,  clerical, 
cleaning,  trucking,  oiling  and  general  supplies,  with  another 
for  labor  which  is  not  absorbed  in  any  other  occupation.  A 
man  can  go  from  one  room  to  another;  simply  ask  the 
man's  room  number,  because  the  job  numbers  are  the  same 
wherever  he  goes;  he  can  go  from  the  cotton-mills  to  the  print- 
works or  the  worsted-mills,  it  makes  no  difference.  If  he  is 
a  master  mechanic's  employee,  there  are  six  other  numbers, 
one  each  for  labor,  material,  repairs  and  maintenance  of 
buildings,  machinery,  furniture  and  fixtures.  Then  there 
are  a  few  numbers  assigned  for  jobs  which  are  peculiar  to  a 
department,  which  are  expenses,  and  still  a  few  others  which 
are  productive  labor.  That  book  comprises  all  the  jobs  in 
the  organization.  You  would  think  it  would  be  an  immense 
undertaking  to  analyze  those.  Well,  when  you  think  that  it 
is  all  done  by  the  machine  which  tabulates  the  United  States 
census,  it  is  not  so  large  an  undertaking.  It  gives  us  an 
opportunity  to  close  our  costs  when  jobs  are  finished,  and  to 
keep  things  cleaned  up. 

The  entire  purpose  of  those  costs  is  that  key  to  the  situa- 
tion, the  balance  sheet,  and  that  we  are  arranging  to  get 
monthly. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Mr.  Patterson  made  the  remark  that  the 
introduction  of  Scientific  Management  is  a  very  expensive 
matter,  that  you  never  can  tell  how  long  it  will  take,  that  you 
simply  go  into  expenditure  and  you  never  know  where  it  is 
going  to  end.  We  generally  use  a  diagram  to  explain  to  our 
clients  how  much  money  they  will  actually  spend  on  an 


182  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

improvement  in  accordance  with  Scientific  Management. 
Suppose  we  go  into  a  plant  and  we  are  asked  to  reduce  the 
cost  to  a  certain  level.  If  we  make  investigations  and  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  possible  to  make  such  a  reduction, 
we  are  able  to  figure  out  how  much  it  will  actually  cost.  The 
net  cost  of  introducing  Scientific  Management  is  not  great; 
it  is  actually  just  borrowing  money  on  the  security  of  future 
increased  returns.  And  that  cost  does  not  usually  require 
cash  payment  for  the  entire  cost  of  development  in  advance; 
before  the  installation  is  completed  there  comes  a  critical 
period  when  its  cost  is  met  by  the  saving  actually  effected. 
Then  follows  a  period  when  the  savings  are  increasingly 
greater  than  the  original  cost  and  the  difference  is  credited 
to  the  cash  outlay  at  the  beginning. 

Suppose  in  a  plant  the  present  cost  of  manufacture  is  150  per  unit, 
and  it  is  estimated  that  a  reduction  to  115  per  unit  is  possible  when  the 
conditions  are  standardized  through  Scientific  Management. 

Standardizing  conditions  means  additional  expense  which  must  be 
advanced.  This  increases  the  unit  cost  to  say  160  at  the  beginning, 
but  it  grows  less  and  less  as  the  development  work  proceeds.  At 
about,  say  the  sixth  month  of  work,  the  savings  equal  the  develop- 
ment expenditure,  and  the  unit  cost  —  the  development  cost  included  — 
is  exactly  what  it  was  at  the  beginning.  From  then  on,  the  savings 
being  increasingly  greater  than  the  development  cost,  the  unit  cost 
declines  until,  say  by  the  end  of  the  year,  development  cost  ceases  and 
the  unit  cost  reaches  the  estimated  115  units. 


The  line  ab  =  the  unit  cost  before  development.  The  line  cd  =  the 
gradually  decreasing  unit  cost  (development  cost  included)  during 
development.  The  line  de  =  the  unit  cost  after  development  is  com- 
pleted. The  distance  ac  =  the  increase  cost  at  the  beginning  of 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  183 

development.  The  distance  df  =  the  saving  in  unit  cost  at  the  time 
development  is  completed.  The  total  cost  of  development  (savings 
deducted)  is  area  w,  which  has  been  advanced  and  must  be  replaced. 
The  area  y  (x  =  w)  =  net  savings  of  the  year. 

The  real  value  of  development  can  be  seen  in  the  second  year.  The 
development  burden  has  ceased.  The  advantage,  therefore,  of  the 
standardized  over  the  unstandardized  plant  =  z. 

It  should  be  observed  that  "unit  cost"  through  any  period  cannot 
be  represented  by  a  straight  line,  because  it  varies  with  the  constant 
variation  of  manufacturing  factors,  material  cost,  labor  cost,  etc. 

MR.  MORRILL:  When  a  man  says  he  finds  the  efficiency 
of  a  mill  56  per  cent,  am  I  to  infer  that  the  average  worker 
in  that  mill  performs  only  56  per  cent  of  what  the  average 
of  all  the  workers  could  do,  if  they  were  properly  instructed? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No,  it  means  that  the  management  is  not 
performing  its  duties. 

MR.  MORRILL:  Take  the  whole  plant;  not  the  worker 
alone,  but  the  worker  and  management  together. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  The  worker  is  never  more  efficient  than  the 
management.  If  the  management  is  —  not  unscientific,  but 
what  I  call  unsystematized  —  the  worker  is  very  inefficient. 
It  is  not  his  fault  at  all.  If  I  say  that  the  plant  is  56 
per  cent  efficient,  it  means  that  the  combination  of  wastes 
caused  by  labor,  by  disorganization,  by  material  wastes,  by 
unscientific  buying,  by  unscientific  selling,  all  combined  to- 
gether, produce  that  result.  There  is  a  certain  plant  that 
I  have  in  my  mind,  a  cotton-manufacturing  plant  using 
old  machinery.  They  have  old-style  spinning-frames;  their 
mules  are  almost  anno  1800.  Their  looms  have  been  running 
thirty-two  years.  You  can  imagine  how  efficient  this  plant 
is.  That  plant  is  actually  running  at,  we  figured,  something 
like  42  per  cent  efficiency.  We  received  a  request  to 
introduce  Scientific  Management  and  we  refused  it.  You 
cannot  take  a  man  who  is  suffering  from  tuberculosis  in  the 
worst  stage  and  put  in  a  new  lung,  but  when  he  is  at  the  first 
stage  of  tuberculosis  you  can  save  him.  All  that  manu- 
facturer can  do  is  to  throw  out  his  old  machinery  and  start 
anew  to  bring  up  his  efficiency.  It  is  the  waste  of  manage- 


184  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

ment,  not  of  the  worker,  which  has  brought  him  down  to 
this  low  figure.  They  are  working  with  machines  which  are 
absolutely  not  much  better  than  scrap-iron.  My  experience 
is  that  the  working  man  is  anxious  to  make  money.  In  intro- 
ducing Scientific  Management,  you  will  improve  the  efficiency 
of  the  workmen  a  small  per  cent,  bring  it  up  to  between  75 
per  cent  and  85  per  cent,  but  the  greatest  gain  is  in  prevent- 
ing leakages.  For  instance,  I  have  found  that  in  a  certain 
mill  many  weavers  were  missing  from  the  looms  without  rea- 
son, and  I  traced  it  back  to  the  rilling  room.  In  the  filling 
room  this  concern  employed  two  good-looking  girls,  and  every 
weaver,  when  he  found  himself  a  little  bit  lonely  —  I  cannot 
express  his  feelings  —  went  down  to  the  rilling  room  with 
a  certain  excuse.  I  transferred  those  two  girls  to  another 
department  and  put  in  two  older  women.  The  efficiency  of 
the  weaving  room  went  up  5  per  cent.  So  the  object  is  not 
to  drive  the  worker  but  to  prevent  waste  of  time. 

Take  a  certain  plant  running  100  looms;  Jones  is  the 
foreman,  a  mighty  good  fellow,  and  he  is  just  waiting  till 
the  loom  breaks  down;  when  the  loom  breaks  down  he 
repairs  it.  I  had  a  mill  where  37  per  cent  of  the  looms 
were  idle  because  of  repairs.  Our  policy  is  not  to  repair; 
it  is  to  prevent.  We  do  not  let  a  loom  or  a  spinning- 
frame  reach  a  condition  where  it  needs  extreme  repair;  I 
do  not  wait  until  a  picker-stick  or  any  other  part  breaks; 
I  change  it;  and  by  examination  generally  I  can,  and  you  can, 
and  any  one  else  in  the  business  can  tell  in  five  minutes 
whether  the  loom  is  in  condition  or  not. 

As  a  rule,  I  give  instructions  that  at  every  dinner-hour  the 
section-hand  is  to  go  over  the  looms  and,  if  there  is  a  little 
repair  necessary,  it  is  to  be  done  right  away.  So  I  prevent 
breakage,  and  bring  up  efficiency.  The  Northrop  loom  is 
very  efficient,  but  still  there  are  cases  where  the  Northrop 
loom  does  not  come  up  to  more  than  75  per  cent  of  what  it 
should  do.  It  is  not  because  the  Northrop  loom  is  not 
efficient;  it  is  because  the  management  is  not  efficient  and 
does  not  consider  that  looms  need  a  certain  attention  and  a 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  185 

little  planning.  Prevent  breakages,  prevent  stoppages,  pre- 
vent wastes,  and  you  can  see  how  you  have  reduced  the  cost 
of  a  certain  article. 

There  is  no  part  of  the  textile  industry  where  you  cannot 
reduce  the  cost.  I  have  a  strong  example  from  the  South. 
There  is  a  certain  cotton-mill  in  the  South  which  I  have 
visited,  —  it  had  a  new  building,  new  machinery,  everything 
modern  and  sanitary.  They  are  making  cotton  sheetings 
which  cost  them  to  manufacture  twenty-five  cents  per  pound, 
and  they  are  getting  twenty-four  cents  for  them.  So  they 
came  to  us;  they  sent  samples,  descriptions,  the  pay-rolls  in 
every  department,  and  I  could  not  find  out  why  they  manufac- 
tured for  twenty-five  cents  per  unit  and  sold  for  twenty-four 
cents  until  I  made  a  close  investigation  of  their  yarn.  The 
reason  why  they  could  not  make  money  was,  that  they  could 
not  account  for  10,000  pounds  of  cotton  in  one  month.  They 
did  not  know  what  had  happened  to  it.  They  put  it  into  the 
manufactured  article,  but  they  called  the  yarn  No.  20  when 
it  was  No.  1 6.  Here  was  the  trouble,  and  with  such  a  leak- 
age no  manager,  scientific  or  otherwise,  is  able  to  decrease 
the  cost  of  manufacture.  So  that  is  again  a  case  illustrating 
why  some  cotton-mills  make  money  and  why  some  cotton- 
mills  cannot  make  money. 

Testing,  for  instance,  is  an  important  factor,  and  testing 
today,  in  America  especially,  is  very  primitive.  We  do  not 
test  our  material.  A  man  who  is  buying  yarn  just  looks  at 
it.  Also,  there  is  no  scientific  test  of  speed.  An  overseer 
says,  "I  guess  I  will  run  120  picks  a  minute."  Why  is  he 
running  at  120  picks  per  minute?  He  has  no  other  reason 
than  that  he  learned  it  that  way.  I  came  into  a  mill  where 
they  ran  ninety-five  picks  a  minute,  and  I  gradually  speeded 
up  to  as  much  as  126,  and  the  thing  that  made  it  possible 
was  that  I  was  getting  less  breakages  in  the  harness  than 
they  had  been  getting.  So  in  textile  mills  you  can  determine 
the  actual  factors  just  as  well  as  in  any  other  industry.  There 
is  no  reason  why  every  textile  man  should  not  experiment 
on  a  certain  scale  for  himself,  look  into  things  carefully  and 


186  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

establish  standards.  He  should  not  permit  a  thing  to  be 
done  a  certain  way  just  because  it  is  customary  to  do  it 
that  way. 

I  am  going  to  give  you  a  striking  example.  In  Germany, 
for  some  250  years,  at  a  certain  garrison,  a  sentinel  had 
been  sent  out  every  night  about  five  miles  away  to  watch 
something;  he  did  not  know  what.  A  new  general  with  a 
curiosity  like  that  of  Scientific  Management  was  stationed 
at  this  post  and,  seeing  the  sentinel  going  by  every  day, 
inquired  why  he  was  sent  out.  Nobody  could  tell  him.  The 
general  was  a  little  inquisitive  and,  on  investigation,  found 
that  250  years  ago  there  had'  been  a  magazine  for  military 
supplies  on  the  spot  in  question.  That  magazine  had  been 
blown  up  150  years  before,  but  they  had  continued  to  send 
the  sentinel  there  because  they  had  done  so  before. 

In  industry  it  is  the  same  thing.  My  father  was  a  mechanic ; 
he  was  a  watchmaker  and  my  brother  is  a  watchmaker.  My 
brother  learned  the  trade  from  my  father.  A  certain  boring 
instrument  my  brother  used  at  the  same  speed  that  my  father 
did,  until  I  found  out  that  he  could  increase  his  speed,  be- 
cause the  instrument  had  been  improved.  He  learned  it  the 
old  way;  he  did  not  have  the  inclination  to  look  for  any 
possible  improvement.  So  because  a  certain  loom  or  a  certain 
spinning-frame  or  combing-machine  is  run  in  a  certain  way,  is 
no  excuse  for  failing  to  try  to  bring  it  up  to  a  better  standard. 

In  the  textile  industry,  I  think  I  am  justified  in  saying,  we 
cannot  expect  any  improvement  that  will  greatly  reduce  the 
cost  of  manufacture  through  machinery.  Carding  is  a  very 
primitive  proposition,  we  all  admit.  Mule-spinning  is  a  prim- 
itive proposition.  Who  has  something  better?  I  do  not 
think  I  shall  live  long  enough  to  find  something  better. 
Here  is  the  Jacquard  machine,  more  than  100  years  old, 
and  it  has  not  been  improved  in  the  last  100  years. 
So  we  have  to  accept  the  present  condition,  assuming  that 
the  machinery  may  improve  only  to  a  certain  extent,  a  few 
per  cent.  We  have  to  look,  therefore,  for  other  improvement. 
What  we  are  doing  is  to  compare  minutely  the  present  indus- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  187 

trial  conditions  with  what  they  would  be  under  Scientific 
Management.  We  are  all  open  for  improvement,  and  we 
should  all  do  our  very  best  to  understand  what  Scientific 
Management  is.  It  is  not  a  slave-driving  system,  and  it  will 
never  be.  The  laborer  is  paid  what  he  is  worth,  and  every 
one  of  us  is  willing  to  give  the  laborer  the  share  to  which 
he  is  entitled. 

As  to  wages,  that  question  came  up  last  week  with  a  manu- 
facturer. He  wanted  an  explanation  as  to  what  a  bonus  is. 
You  hear  so  much  about  the  bonus;  what  is  a  bonus  and 
what  is  a  laborer  entitled  to?  I  have  no  use  for  a  man  who 
under  Scientific  Management  cannot  reach  the  point  of  66 
per  cent  efficiency.  That  man  should  look  for  another  occu- 
pation; he  is  not  fitted  for  what  he  is  doing.  But  that 
means :  if  it  is  found,  after  experiment  and  endeavor  to  teach 
him  one  step  at  a  time,  that  he  cannot  get  up  to  that  efficiency, 
he  is  to  look  for  another  vocation.  Suppose  I  take  ten  differ- 
ent weights,  and  take  an  ordinary  worker  to  move  them  out; 
how  will  he  do  it?  He  finds  it  is  easiest  to  carry  the  lightest 
one,  and  then  the  next  one,  and  so  on  until  he  is  able  to  carry 
the  hardest  one.  That  is  the  way  we  teach  a  man.  The 
boy  going  to  school  and  learning  algebra  does  not  begin  at 
quadratic  equations.  Reaching  college  he  does  not  start  at 
calculus;  he  has  to  start  with  the  elementary  principles. 

Suppose  I  am  a  manufacturer  and  employ  a  weaver;  the 
first  thing  he  does  is  to  change  his  shuttles.  It  is  an  easy 
task.  He  may  not  be  able  to  take  care  of  the  warps,  take 
care  of  the  beams,  take  care  of  the  machine,  but  he  is  able  to 
take  care  of  the  shuttles.  Next  he  may  learn  to  take  care  of 
the  reed,  and  he  gradually  will  become  an  efficient  weaver. 
So  he  attacks  first  of  all  the  easiest  unit  of  the  task  on  which 
he  is  employing  his  skill,  and  then  the  next  easiest,  and  so  on. 

Now  to  induce  this  man  to  learn  most  efficiently  one 
step  after  another,  and  to  give  him  his  share  of  the  results 
of  increased  efficiency,  the  bonus  system  of  payment  is  used. 
It  automatically  makes  his  wage  greater  as  his  efficiency 
increases 


i88 


TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


Let  e  =  the  unit  effort  to  reach  efficiency  from  the  lowest,  say  50%, 
to  60%  efficiency;  and  let  the  effort  be  twice  as  large  to  reach  from 
60%  to  70%  efficiency,  i.e.,  let  the  effort  required  to  reach 

from  50%  to  60%  =     6 

from  60%  to  70%  =    26 

from  70%  to  80%  =    36 

from  80%  to  90%  =    6e 

from  90%  to  1 00%  =  126 

therefore  the  individual  has  used  up  efforts  at  the  different  stages  of 
individual  efficiency,  as  follows,  — 

60%     6 
70%     6  +  26 
80%     6  +  26+36 

6  +  26+36  +  66 

6  +  26  +  36  +  66  +  126 


Now 


effort 
result 


at 

at 
at 

at    00% 
at  100% 

efficiency 
reward 


therefore 


if  effort  =  6,      Reward  v    =6 

if  effort  =  26,     Reward  v  i  =  e  +  26 

if  effort  =  36,     Reward  v  z  =6  +  26  +  36 

if  effort  =  6e,     Reward  v  3  =  e  +  26  +  36  +  6e 

if  effort  =  i2e,  Reward  v  4  =  e  +  26  +  36  +  66  +  126 


but 


=  v 


V  62 


V  3 


units 


If  bonus  for  100%  efficiency  is  20%,  thus  the  bonus  paid  at  the 
different  stages  of  efficiency  will  have  the  following  index  numbers,  — 


50% 
60% 
70% 


o. 
i. 
3.6 


80% 

90% 

100% 


6.7 
12.6 
24.3 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  189 

and  the  bonus  paid  will  be  —  with  some  slight  corrections,  — 

Efficiency    60%  Bonus    0.8% 

Efficiency    70%  Bonus    2.4% 

Efficiency    80%  Bonus    5.5% 

Efficiency    00%  Bonus  11.0% 

Efficiency  100%  Bonus  20.0% 

So  that  is  the  way  the  laborer  is  paid,  the  physician  is 
paid,  and  everybody  in  the  world.  If  his  efficiency  is  going 
up,  no  matter  how  much  he  is  paid,  he  is  worth  the  money 
paid  to  him.  If  he  is  100  per  cent  efficient,  he  is  going  to 
get  a  20  per  cent  bonus.  We  have  two  forces;  one  is  the 
task,  the  other  is  his  actual  ability  in  the  task  he  is  perform- 
ing. So  the  wages  of  a  worker  can  be  established  and  not 
guessed  at,  —  "I  guess  he  ought  to  make  $8.00  a  week"  or  "I 
guess  he  ought  to  get  5  cents  per  unit."  What  the  worker 
is  entitled  to  must  be  established :  then  you  cannot  do  him 
an  injustice.  So  the  question  of  wages  and  bonus  is  one  which 
is  the  hardest  to  attack.  It  should  be  done  very  carefully, 
because  cutting  a  wage  or  a  rate  is  disastrous. 

MR.  DAVIS  :  In  the  case  which  you  spoke  of  a  while  ago  — 
the  good-looking  girls  —  where  you  made  a  change  of  em- 
ployees from  one  room  to  another,  would  it  not  have  been 
better  for  the  discipline  of  the  room  to  have  made  it  a  point 
of  discipline  instead  of  making  a  change?  It  seems  to  me 
that  in  that  case  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  overseer 
to  have  enforced  the  rules. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  The  policy  is  to  prevent.  We  are  only 
human,  and  Scientific  Management  is  something  which  takes 
a  great  deal  of  philosophy  and  tact  and  diplomacy  to  handle. 
So  I  cannot  say  that  a  man  must  not  go  to  the  room  when  he 
has  to  go.  But  if  I  change  the  situation  he  will  not  go  any 
more  than  he  actually  has  to.  So  prevention  is  one  policy 
of  every  industrial  engineer.  It  is  the  policy  of  today.  We 
try  to  prevent  tuberculosis,  we  try  to  prevent  every  disease, 
we  try  to  prevent  industrial  depression,  not  merely  to  cure 
it  —  that  was  the  old  system.  We  have  something  better  — 
to  prevent 


igo  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  CARDULLO:  Do  you  attempt  to  fix  a  task  in  the 
weaving  industry  by  settling  the  number  of  picks  and  the 
percentage  of  time  looms  are  to  be  stopped,  and  so  on,  and 
then  ask  the  men  to  make  that  test  and  give  them  a  bonus 
if  they  get  over  that? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  something  of  that  kind  after  careful  study. 

MR.  CARDULLO:  Well,  how  do  you  do  that;  do  you  have 
some  system  of  piece-work? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  The  piece-rate  is  nothing  less  than  the 
market  value  of  an  average  good  workingman  based  on  the 
conditions  and  the  proper  day's  work.  I  give  him  a  certain 
piece-rate  which  I  want  to  keep  and  give  him  encourage- 
ment to  do  his  very  best  —  not  drive  him,  but  have  him  do 
his  very  best  —  and  I  could  not  give  him  more  than  actual 
money.  They  don't  care  for  nice  words,  and  I  don't  blame 
them.  They  have  burned  their  fingers  many  times.  A 
piece-rate  and  bonus  —  a  real  piece-rate  honestly  given  to 
them,  and  the  management  doing  its  best  to  promote  effi- 
ciency—  is  insuring  the  workman  to  earn  that  money;  and 
they  are  going  to  earn  it,  but  there  has  to  be  established  a 
certain  rate.  Today  it  is  established  by  cost  and  certain 
market  conditions  without  knowing  what  the  proper  day's 
task  is.  That  can  be  determined  only  by  time-studies. 

MR.  CARDULLO:  You  establish  the  day's  task  by  time- 
studies  before  you  fix  the  piece-rate? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Absolutely;  that  is  the  only  way  to  do  it. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  How  far  has  Scientific  Management,  to 
your  knowledge,  been  introduced  in  the  textile  industries? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  am  sorry  to  say  in  not  more  than  1.5  per 
cent  of  the  whole  industry.  It  is  about  that.  Several  mills 
are  taking  it  up  now,  but  it  requires  considerable  time  to 
develop  it. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Have  you  actually  introduced  the  bonus? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  It  has  been  introduced  in  several  cotton- 
mills  and  woolen-mills. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Just  how  do  you  apply  it  to  spinning,  for 
instance? 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  191 

MR.  SZEPESI:  That  is  a  very  interesting  question.  I  went 
into  a  cotton-mill  to  see  girls  attending  spinning-frames.  I 
made  time-studies  and  I  found  that  a  girl  seventeen  years 
old  was  the  most  efficient  in  the  whole  room.  And  so  I  put 
her  aside.  I  did  not  want  her  as  a  standard,  because  she 
was  too  efficient.  I  had  a  variation  from  fifty-seven  spindles, 
attended  by  a  girl,  upwards,  and  I  gave  a  bonus  according 
to  the  number  of  spindles  a  girl  can  attend.  Some  girls  are 
clever  and  some  girls  are  not. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  Yes;  but  what  is  your  basis? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  My  basis  is  time-studies,  just  as  well  as 
for  looms  or  for  anything  else,  to  determine  how  many  spindles 
a  girl  can  run  on  an  average. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  I  understand  it  varies  with  your  frames  and 
with  the  age  of  the  machinery? 

MR.  PATTERSON:  And  the  quality  of  the  stock? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  but  that  is  all  averaged.  I  determine 
the  unit  cost  just  the  same  for  a  loom  which  I  use  for  a  fancy 
fabric  as  for  a  loom  used  for  the  ordinary  printing  sheet. 
For  every  one  I  have  a  different  rate,  for  different  stock  and 
different  numbers  of  yarn. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  You  have  some  standard  with  which  you 
begin,  don't  you? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No,  I  have  to  find  out  the  standard.  We 
all  have  standards  in  general,  but  when  we  start  to  standard- 
ize specific  conditions  we  do  not  consider  previous  standards; 
we  consider  only  how  much  a  girl  should  earn  under  the 
conditions.  Maybe  my  unit  will  be  smaller  or  will  be  larger. 
I  have  had  cases  where  they  established  a  certain  rate,  and  I 
had  to  reduce  it  to  50  per  cent.  When  the  girls  were  85  per 
cent  efficient  they  made  as  much  as  30  per  cent  bonus  with 
the  reduced  unit  rate.  So  time-studies  and  investigations 
must  establish  the  rate  —  the  right  rate  —  only  the  operative 
must  earn  as  much  as  she  did  before,  and  certainly  should 
earn  more,  because  you  want  her  cooperation. 

MR.  LINCOLN  :  I  should  say  that  spinning  would  be  a  very 
difficult  thing  to  standardize. 


IQ2  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Spinning,  I  admit,  is  a  very  difficult  propo- 
sition, but  the  rules  of  Scientific  Management  can  be  applied  to 
cotton  spinning  just  as  well  as  they  can  be  applied  to  handling 
pig  iron.  The  difference  is  in  degree.  It  is  a  difficult  propo- 
sition, but  it  can  be  overcome  by  time-studies  and  by  estab- 
lishing rates  and  by  making  experiments  as  to  what  is  the 
best  condition  for  spinning  a  yarn. 

MR.  MORRILL:  How  do  you  increase  their  efficiency  — 
by  giving  them  more  spindles  to  run? 

MR  SZEPESI:  Sometimes.  Sometimes  I  reduce  the  spindles 
to  be  run.  I  have  known  cases  where  they  gave  the  opera- 
tive too  many  spindles  to  run,  and  therefore  she  could  not 
attend  them.  As  I  illustrated  for  the  winding  department, 
the  spindlage  for  a  spinner  should  be  established  just  as  well, — 
how  many  operations  she  has  to  perform  per  unit  of  spindle, 
and  how  much  time  she  has  per  unit  of  spindle,  and  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  is  going  to  give  the  result  just  the  same 
as  any  other  mathematical  equation.  One  girl  may  be  extraor- 
dinarily fitted  for  that  work.  I  have  seen  girls  who  are  born 
spinners,  some  women  again  who  are  absolutely  unfitted. 

MR.  MORRILL:  If  you  take  anything  off  them,  you  have 
to  take  the  whole  side? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  You  may  probably  take  the  whole  side,  but 
you  may  arrange  the  spindles  differently.  You  may  improve 
the  efficiency  of  a  spinning-room  by  improving  the  light,  by 
improving  the  ventilation,  by  giving  the  girl  ten  minutes 
rest  every  day  in  the  forenoon  and  in  the  afternoon.  All 
these  things  will  improve  her  efficiency.  There  are  many 
factors  which  you  have  to  analyze  very  carefully  in  order  not 
to  come  to  a  conclusion  which  may  prove  a  failure  for  the 
mill  and  cause  labor  troubles.  The  standard  that  would  be 
just  and  right  should  in  every  case  be  sought  for.  In  many 
cases,  we  reduce  spindlage. 

MR.  CORCORAN:  It  just  occurred  to  me  that  the  efficiency 
of  a  cotton-mill,  of  course,  could  not  be  increased  very  many 
per  cent  by  any  superhuman  methods  or  means  of  man. 
Now,  on  the  other  hand,  in  introducing  Scientific  Manage- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  193 

ment  there  is  necessarily  brought  in  a  new  expense,  the 
planning  department  with  all  its  detailed  studies  and  figuring. 
Mustn't  you  show  a  saving  for  the  mill  right  there?  Isn't 
that  the  stumbling  block  that  keeps  it  out  of  a  good  many 
textile  mills? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No.  The  planning  department  is  the  brains 
of  the  mill.  I  cannot  think  with  my  hands,  I  only  feel  with 
my  hands.  If  you  go  into  a  cotton-mill  and  without  any 
planning  department  you  want  to  observe  facts,  whether  a 
certain  stock  is  running  or  not,  you  have  to  feel  it.  The 
planning  department  —  the  brain  —  on  the  other  hand 
actually  gives  you  information  as  to  what  the  stock  is  and 
enables  you  to  make  a  saving. 

MR.  CORCORAN:  I  might  put  it  this  way,  that  a  blind 
woman  might  make  a  waste  basket,  — 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes. 

MR.  CORCORAN:  And  if  you  gave  her  eyes  she  could  not 
make  a  waste  basket  much  faster,  — 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No,  but  you  can  prevent  the  delays.  For 
instance ;  in  a  cotton-mill,  say  the  picker-room  or  the  scutcher 
is  out  of  condition;  you  have,  probably,  an  ordinary  man  with 
limited  intelligence,  to  weigh  every  bundle  or  every  roll  that 
is  coming  down  from  the  scutcher.  If  the  stock  is  not  proper 
or  the  machine  is  not  delivering  the  right  production,  the 
difference  cannot  be  seen  at  once.  If  you  have  a  planning 
room,  you  know  that  a  certain  stock,  a  certain  unit,  has  to 
go  through.  Next  you  find  in  the  planning  room  that  the 
production  is  not  what  it  should  have  been,  —  there  is  some- 
thing wrong.  Many  thousands  of  dollars  worth  of  cotton 
could  be  saved  by  discovering  the  trouble  in  time  to  pre- 
vent the  cotton  going  through  to  the  spinning-room,  by  reme- 
dying the  difficulty  at  the  very  beginning.  So  the  planning 
department  is  the  brain,  the  nerve  system  of  a  mill. 

I  have  seen  a  certain  textile  mill  where  they  had  a  planning 
department,  —  a  full  plan  was  drawn  of  the  whole  mill,  and 
a  point  was  designated  for  every  loom,  for  every  spinning- 
frame;  and  for  every  frame  they  worked,  the  kind  of  goods 


I94  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

they  were  running  and  the  date  when  the  goods  must  go 
through.  It  is  not  money  thrown  away;  it  is  simply  estab- 
lishing a  system  by  which  you  know  things  and  do  not  guess. 
You  have  a  brain  for  the  organization,  not  merely  a  tool. 
Suppose  you  want  to  find  a  certain  piece  of  goods  which  is 
somewhere  in  the  dye-house.  John  is  going  there,  maybe  he 
is  around  and  maybe  he  is  not;  and  he  may  be  able  to  find  it. 
But  in  the  planning  room,  you  know  that  this  particular  lot 
will  be  in  the  bleachery  tomorrow. 

MR.  CORCORAN:  I  have  had  a  little  experience  in  scien- 
tifically managed  concerns,  and  we  have  found  that,  whereas 
under  the  old  system  a  point  might  be  stretched  to  favor  a 
certain  customer,  yet  under  Scientific  Management  all  cus- 
tomers, as  I  understand  it,  are  universally  kept  at  bay  until 
the  goods  come  through  of  their  own  accord.  Do  you  think 
that  is  Scientific  Management? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No.  You  may  buy  a  gold  brick  of  the  real 
stuff  or  you  may  buy  a  piece  of  brass,  just  shining.  So  it  is 
up  to  the  particular  concern  to  determine  whether  it  has  real 
Scientific  Management  or  not.  One  cannot  prevent  people 
selling  gold  bricks.  We  don't  sell  them,  in  fact,  we  don't 
promise  gold  bricks.  But  I  read  last  week  that  Scientific 
Management  is  taught  in  twenty  lessons  at  $2  a  lesson. 
So  it  is  a  question  of  the  reputation  of  the  man  to  whom 
you  apply.  You  may  go  to  a  fake  to  introduce  his  so-called 
Scientific  Management. 

MR.  CORCORAN:  I  might  ask  that  other  question  of  mine 
again,  and  that  is  this:  I  think  you  will  have  to  show  to 
textile  men  that  the  cost  of  maintaining  a  planning  depart- 
ment will  not  be  larger  than  the  saving  they  can  possibly 
make  over  the  present  slipshod  methods. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  you  have  to  show  every  manufacturer. 
It  must  be  proved  that  things  are  actually  worth  what  they 
cost.  I  have  shown  you  by  a  diagram  how  the  expense  is 
repaid  to  you  by  the  improvements.  In  the  beginning,  you 
have  to  advance  a  certain  amount  for  the  future  account 
while  the  plans  are  developing. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  195 

MR.  RUSSELL:  When  you  establish  a  piece-rate,  that  is 
the  flat  rate  for  every  man  in  the  spinning-room,  or  the  card- 
room,  is  it? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  They  are  all  on  the  same  rate;  every  one  has 
the  same  chance  to  make  money,  but  it  differs.  Mr.  Taylor 
has  a  certain  method  of  determining  rates;  Mr.  Gantt  has 
a  certain  method,  and  so  has  Mr.  Emerson.  But  there  is  no 
difference  in  the  principle;  they  are  only  different  forms  of 
execution  of  the  bonus  system.  But  every  one  is  getting  the 
same  rate.  For  instance,  I  may  have  foreign  help  at  $6 
a  week.  If  she  is  primitive  help  and  cannot  understand 
English,  the  best  way  is  to  make  things  as  simple  as 
possible.  I  had  a  funny  experience  with  foreign  help.  I 
introduced  the  bonus  system  and  gave  the  help  a  table  show- 
ing how  much  bonus  they  would  get  for  certain  efficiency  — 
if  you  make  ten  yards,  if  you  make  eleven  yards,  if  you  make 
twelve  yards,  and  so  on.  Before  I  came  into  the  plant  they 
paid  for  the  edges.  Now  it  was  a  fancy  worsted  fabric,  and 
the  workmen  themselves  had  to  twist  on  the  edges,  because 
they  had  long  warps  and  the  edges  went  from  little  spools, 
so  it  was  customary  to  pay  them  for  the  edges.  Every  pay- 
day, every  two  weeks,  the  average  workman  was  receiving 
22  cents  extra  for  the  edges.  After  the  first  pay-day  under 
the  bonus  system,  a  Pole  was  making  something  like  $3.50 
bonus  because  he  had  over  66  per  cent  of  efficiency,  but 
I  didn't  pay  him  for  the  edges.  He  almost  killed  me.  He 
wanted  his  edges,  no  matter  how  much  bonus  he  made. 
So  I  prefer,  with  help  not  speaking  English,  not  to  give  an 
elaborate  plan,  not  to  tell  them  what  I  am  doing.  I  tell 
him,  "If  you  make  so  much,  you  earn  $11.22;  if  you  make 
so  much,  you  earn  $14.75."  Give  it  to  them  in  this  primi- 
tive form,  and  for  his  primitive  mind  it  is  satisfactory. 
Foreign  help  is  likely  to  have  imaginary  grievances. 

MR.  CASWELL:  Have  you  found  it  to  be  an  advantage 
to  tell  the  foreign  help  what  you  are  doing,  explain  to 
them? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  I  must  gain  their  confidence. 


196  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  CASWELL:  How  can  you  explain  these  complicated 
bonus  tasks  and  rates  to  them? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  It  is  all  up  to  the  workman.  First,  if  I  have 
an  Englishman,  I  say,  "John,  I  will  explain  to  you  what  I 
want."  But  — 

MR.  CASWELL:  Non-English-speaking  people  — 

MR.  SZEPESI:  We  have  85  per  cent  foreign  help,  some 
Greeks  and  some  Poles.  I  simply  say  nothing.  When  the 
pay-day  comes,  he  sees  his  pay  envelope  and  finds  he  is  earn- 
ing more  money;  and  then  he  gradually  is  broken  in.  I  write 
down  things  in  English  and  have  them  rewritten  in  Polish. 
For  instance,  instructions  for  the  weaver:  "Don't  do  that," 
"Do  that,"  giving  little  sentences  in  popular  language  telling 
him  what  he  should  do,  what  he  should  not  do,  and  how  much 
he  is  going  to  earn.  Gradually  you  gain  the  confidence  of 
those  simple-minded  fellows,  and  they  comprehend  what 
you  tell  them.  I  know  them  very  well;  I  was  brought  up 
in  the  old  country  and  I  have  traveled  a  great  deal  in  Europe, 
all  through  the  Slavic  countries,  so  I  am  familiar  with  their 
state  of  mind.  They  all  have  imaginary  grievances,  and  it 
is  my  conclusion  that  75  per  cent  of  the  strikes  in  America 
among  the  foreign  help  could  be  avoided  by  considering 
them  just  as  they  are,  as  primitive  human  beings.  This 
is  a  simple  psychological  fact;  we  have  to  handle  human 
beings  as  human  and  handle  them  in  their  own  way,  in  their 
own  language.  So  I  do  not  anticipate  difficulties,  provided 
the  man  is  careful  who  handles  that  very  delicate  task  of  a 
bonus,  which  is  like  a  bunch  of  wasps,  —  you  have  to  be  very 
careful,  to  be  somewhat  of  a  diplomat,  to  handle  it. 

MR.  CASWELL:  Have  you  found  it  any  advantage  to  inform 
these  non-English-speaking  operatives  each  day  what  they 
have  earned  the  day  before?  Or  do  they  have  to  wait  until 
pay-day? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  That  all  depends.  For  instance,  I  never 
advise  to  start  with  the  whole  room.  I  may  pick  out  one  or 
two  intelligent  foreign  men  who  speak  English  and  let  them 
receive  the  training  in  the  improved  methods.  Then  very 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  197 

soon  they  are  talking  about  and  telling  everybody  that  they 
are  making  more  money,  —  that  is  the  way  I  introduce  it  to 
the  room.  When  the  others  see  they  are  making  more  money, 
they  are  anxious  to  get  it  —  sometimes,  sometimes  not. 
Sometimes  they  refuse  even  to  work  under  it;  they  don't  want 
it  because  they  don't  understand  it;  so  diplomacy  is  absolutely 
essential  for  introducing  Scientific  Management.  You  can- 
not lay  down  a  universal  law  or  a  rule  by  which  you  can 
handle  every  one.  In  every  mill  you  have  different  conditions 
and  you  have  to  adapt  your  system  to  the  conditions.  The 
bonus  should  be  established  only  after  long  time-study, 
because  it  should  never  be  changed. 

MR.  CASWELL:  Do  you  advocate  the  use  of  a  daily  record, 
a  time-card  showing  the  amount  of  work  that  each  operative 
has  done? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Both  are  used,  and  I  advocate  both  accord- 
ing to  the  conditions.  I  have  mills  where  it  is  necessary,  but 
in  many  mills  it  is  impossible  to  get  the  data.  If  I  have  a 
warp  which  runs  off  in  two  weeks,  I  cannot  tell  each  man  what 
he  is  making. 

MR.  CASWELL:  You  can  by  the  use  of  a  pick-counter, 
can't  you? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  have  had  some  experience  with  pick- 
counters,  and  I  find  that  in  some  mills  they  are  very  valuable, 
but  in  some  mills  you  cannot  use  them,  and  I  do  not  know 
whether,  on  the  whole,  there  is  a  practical  value  in  them. 
It  depends  on  actual  conditions,  just  as  I  may  have  a  plan- 
ning system  developed  in  a  certain  way,  which  all  depends 
on  the  help.  I  know  two  mills  employing  the  same  help; 
one  is  very  efficient  and  the  other  is  not.  They  are  of  the 
same  nationality.  The  difference  is  that  in  one  they  don't 
know  how  to  handle  the  help.  They  try  all  kinds  of  im- 
proved machinery,  but  it  does  not  improve  matters.  I  think 
at  the  beginning  it  is  advisable  to  inform  the  help  whether 
they  are  improving  or  not.  Then  if  you  see  a  relapse  in  a 
workingman's  production,  you  can  improve  it  right  away. 

MR.  CASWELL:  I  have  not  heard  anything  said  about 


198  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

whether  the  pay  of  the  foreman  of  the  room  depended  at  all 
on  what  his  room  produces. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  he  is  getting  a  bonus  just  as  well,  but 
not  for  production  only. 

MR.  CASWELL:  For  quality? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  The  foreman  is  getting  a  bonus  for  produc- 
tion and  quality,  and  it  is  just.  Everybody,  I  think,  even  the 
manager,  should  get  a  bonus  for  the  improvement  of  the  plant. 
He  is  entitled  to  it  just  as  well  as  the  lowest  helper.  It  is 
nothing  but  an  ideal  cooperative  system. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  In  weave-rooms  do  you  pay  particular 
attention  to  the  speed  of  looms? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  How  do  you  go  about  that?  Do  you 
take  daily  readings  or  twice  a  day? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Now  if  you  speed  up  a  loom  it  is  a  question 
how  you  run  it  —  whether  you  run  it  by  belt  or  by  direct 
electric  motors.  I  find  that  the  variation  in  the  electric 
motors  is  very  great.  For  instance,  if  a  loom  is  speeded  up 
to  104,  it  is  run  between  104  and  105,  and  in  belting  you 
may  have  slipping.  If  you  improve  the  belting  conditions, 
you  have  absolutely  uniform  speed  of  the  loom  within 
certain  limits. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  What  would  you  allow  if  a  room  were 
running  103  picks  —  2  picks? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  would  not  allow  them  2  picks,  that  is  too 
much.  That  is  more  than  i  per  cent,  it  should  not  be  more 
than  i  per  cent.  Besides,  you  have  to  consider  that  in  a 
fabric  those  picks  generally  equalize;  it  is  shot  through,  and 
is  shot  in,  and  is  under  a  certain  stress.  When  you  go  through 
the  bleaching  and  dyeing  and  finishing  processes  in  the  cot- 
ton fabric,  you  cannot  recognize  your  original  fabric,  so  that 
one  pick  makes  no  difference  for  an  ordinary  cotton  fabric  if 
I  am  weaving  a  high-grade  fabric. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  Wouldn't  you  be  governed  in  that  by 
the  number  of  picks  you  are  putting  in? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  when  I  am  picking. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  199 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  How  much  the  looms  fall  off? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes.  That  is  the  best  test  of  the  variation, 
and  to  overcome  it  a  differential  take-up  is  advisable.  If  you 
have  proper  belt  conditions  and  proper  motor  conditions, 
the  loom  in  good  order  and  the  take-up  gear  in  good  order  — 
sometimes  they  slip  if  you  don't  take  proper  care  —  then  the 
differential  take-up  system  insures  almost  uniform  operation. 
You  have  to  consider,  for  instance  in  a  big  corporation,  that 
one  pick  per  inch  amounts  to  something  in  a  year;  one  pick 
per  inch  is  a  bonus. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  How  do  you  get  the  average,  say  in  the 
weave-room? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  pick  the  weavers  out. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  How  do  you  know  she  is  a  good  weaver? 
Do  you  take  time-studies? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  take  time-studies.  First  of  all  I  see  how 
much  money  she  is  making,  then  — 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  You  have  no  standard  to  start  with? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No,  I  am  blind  when  I  start  and  I  gradually 
open  my  eyes.  When  I  start,  I  pick  out  men,  —  first  of  all 
a  man  who  is  fairly  intelligent  in  appearance,  clean,  and  with 
good  habits.  If  he  is  an  Englishman  or  speaks  English,  I 
explain  to  him  what  I  am  doing.  I  explain  to  this  man  what 
the  stop-watch  is,  and  gradually  I  gain  his  confidence  so  that 
I  can  make  time-studies,  and  I  am  able  to  establish  standards. 
The  first  time-study  of  a  man  is  absolutely  useless,  —  I  have 
been  a  weaver  myself,  and  when  the  boss  came  around  I  was 
getting  busy;  I  tried  to  do  things  very  fast.  The  second, 
third,  fourth,  and  fifth  will  probably  enable  you  to  establish 
an  average. 

MR.  LIGHTBODY:  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  are  a  weaver.  I 
want  to  ask  you  one  question.  You  select  for  your  first 
weaver  a  good,  smart,  intelligent  weaver  to  get  your  first 
standard? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes. 

MR.  LIGHTBODY:  Now,  do  you  take  the  poorest  weaver? 
There  are  poor  weavers  you  know;  there  are  weavers  who  will 


200  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

do  only  one-half  as  much  as  others  on  the  same  work.  What 
do  you  do  with  them?  You  take  the  high  one  and  the  low 
one  and  then  average  them? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  don't  average  them.  I  find  out  why  that 
poor  weaver  is  not  coming  up  to  the  desirable  efficiency?  In 
many  cases,  I  have  found  it  is  up  to  the  manager.  So  I 
don't  average;  I  just  determine  and  take,  —  just  as  Mr. 
Taylor  said,  a  good  dray  horse  for  hauling  coal  —  a  good 
weaver.  If  I  have  foreign  help,  I  take  an  average  man  from 
Europe  who  never  was  a  weaver  before,  but  learned  his  trade 
here.  I  cannot  take  a  man  who  comes  over  from  England, 
whose  father  was  a  weaver,  as  a  standard  for  a  Polish  weaver 
who  learned  the  business  here.  So  I  take  a  man  who  emi- 
grated from  Europe  and  learned  his  trade  here,  and  is  sober 
and  industrious  and  willing  to  learn.  That  is  the  ideal  man 
for  a  time-study;  not  the  very  good  man  but  the  average  man 
you  have  in  your  mill.  It  is  also  advisable  for  corporations 
to  do  a  little  work  hi  getting  information  as  to  the  general 
habits  of  the  help  —  to  determine  average  living  conditions 
and  deficiencies.  That  is  an  index  number.  If  I  know  that 
index  number,  I  can  tell  what  will  be  your  efficiency.  It  is 
up  to  the  help.  Then  you  can  take  an  average  from  the 
average  man  you  have  in  your  mill,  after  many  time-studies. 
A  good  weaver  is  a  man  who  is  not  all  the  time  busy,  who  is 
not  always  standing  at  his  loom  and  watching.  A  man  who 
is  happy  and  whistling  around  the  loom  is  an  ideal  man. 

MR.  RUSSELL:  How  much  time  would  you  spend  with  the 
man  who  is  a  poor  weaver,  to  instruct  him?  How  far  would 
you  go  in  that  respect? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  It  all  depends  on  how  many  applications  I 
have  had.  If  I  am  in  a  town  where  I  can  get  plenty  of  help, 
I  am  not  going  to  bother  too  much  with  the  inefficient  man. 

MR.  LIGHTBODY:  What  do  you  do  with  him,  if  you  can't 
bring  him  up? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  If  he  is  not  fit  for  that  particular  business, 
I  cannot  bring  him  up  to  standard,  —  there  are  failures  among 
physicians  and  lawyers  and  ministers  and  weavers  and 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  201 

mechanics;  you  find  in  every  business,  men  who  have  missed 
their  vocation.  If  a  weaver  comes  up  to  the  standard  of 
66  per  cent  it  is  worth  while  to  keep  him,  because  it  is  a  hard 
thing  to  let  an  old  hand  go,  and  I  don't  believe  in  it;  but  if 
he  is  below,  and  I  cannot  bring  him  up,  I  must  place  him  in 
another  department.  Possibly  he  is  a  good  finisher;  I  should 
try  him  there ;  or  perhaps  he  would  be  a  valuable  man  in  the 
carding  department;  try  him.  I  am  sure  that  in  a  big 
corporation  you  will  find  a  place  for  every  man. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  Don't  they  object  to  being  transferred 
from  one  department  to  another,  if  they  select  weaving  as 
their  particular  job? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  No. 

MR.  BROUGHTON:  Can  you  put  them  in  the  card-room  and 
will  they  stay? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  That  is  again  a  question.  If  they  will  not 
stay  there,  it  is  beyond  my  power  to  help  them;  you 
cannot  afford  to  have  a  man  who  is  not  doing  justice  to 
your  capital. 

QUESTION:  How  much  time  do  you  spend  on  a  weaver? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  It  depends  on  what  you  weave.  If  you 
weave  a  high-grade  worsted,  I  am  willing  to  spend  four  months 
with  a  man. 

QUESTION:  Supposing  you  are  weaving  cheap  print-cloth? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  One  week,  if  you  see  a  man  is  absolutely 
unfit  for  a  certain  work  as  a  weaver;  within  a  week  you  may 
see  indications  of  his  ability  or  his  willingness.  You  can 
determine  in  one  week  whether  he  is  fit  for  weaving  a  cheap 
print-cloth  or  a  plain  merino  fabric. 

QUESTION:  I  have  had  some  experience  myself  in  weaving, 
and  I  had  one  young  man,  a  Pole,  working  for  me,  who  could 
not  earn  his  salt  for  about  three  months,  but  he  turned  out 
to  be  about  one  of  the  best  weavers  I  have  today. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Well,  that  is  an  extraordinary  case. 

QUESTION:  Under  your  one- week  method  you  would  lose 
that  man. 

MR.  SZEPESI:   No,  I  would  place  that  man  in  another 


202  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

department  if  possible.  I  mean  by  one  week,  if  the  man  is 
unable  to  show  any  hope  for  improvement,  —  don't  misunder- 
stand me;  if  I  see  that  the  man  is  improving  a  little  bit  I 
would  give  him  every  chance.  For  instance,  we  all  differ, 
and  perhaps  he  cannot  grasp  a  certain  idea  right  away.  It 
took  me  years  to  learn  to  drive  a  nail,  until  by  accident  I 
found  I  was  hitting  it  just  the  right  way;  but  I  improved  all 
the  time.  If  he  shows  any  signs  of  improvement,  he  will 
probably  be  a  good  weaver,  but  if  he  shows  absolutely 
no  improvement,  no  willingness  within  a  week,  then  he  is 
something  which  you  cannot  afford  in  that  department. 

MR.  WOBBECKE:  How  do  you  figure  a  man's  standard 
when  he  works  only  about  half  a  week,  whether  he  is  60 
per  cent  or  70  per  cent  or  50  per  cent  efficient?  Suppose 
it  is  between  seasons  and  you  are  not  busy? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  When  he  is  doing  a  day's  work  and  is  100 
per  cent  efficient  that  day,  he  is  put  down  as  100  per 
cent  efficient.  I  do  not  figure  weeks;  I  figure  efficiency 
per  hour. 

MR.  WOBBECKE:  You  figure  according  to  the  number  of 
hours  he  works? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  The  number  of  hours  he  works.  Any  other 
way  would  be  an  injustice;  for  instance,  to  a  man  who  is  a 
very  good  worker  and  who  is  sick  a  day;  he  is  entitled  to  his 
average  efficiency  per  hour. 

MR.  WOBBECKE:  Don't  you  find,  as  you  are  going  around 
and  making  investigations  at  different  factories  and  discover- 
ing these  instances  of  great  inefficiency,  that  the  managers 
are  apt  to  disbelieve  you  and  not  have  anything  to  do  with 
it? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  I  don't  sell  efficiency;  I  am  a  professional 
man. 

MR.  WOBBECKE:  I  know,  but  aren't  you  called  out  to 
make  inspections? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  if  they  call  me  in.    I  don't  sell  it. 

MR.  WOBBECKE:  In  case  you  try  to  inform  managers  that 
there  is  something  wrong  in  their  factory,  I  suppose  they  are 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  203 

likely  to  say  that  they  have  been  in  business  all  their  lives, 
and  they  have  an  idea  they  know  all  about  it. 

MR.  SZEPESI:  Yes,  many  people  do  that.  I  had  a  case 
where  a  cotton  manufacturer  read  my  articles  and  he  wrote 
me  a  letter  asking  me  to  see  him.  He  was  an  elderly  man, 
and  sizing  me  up,  he  said,  "How  old  are  you,  sonny?"  I 
said,  "I  am  thirty-one."  "Well,"  he  said,  "I  am  seventy-five 
years  old  and  you  mean  to  tell  me  how  to  run  my  business?" 
But  still  we  prove  that  one  cannot  know  everything,  and  there 
is  no  superintendent  who  can  do  development;  he  has  no 
time.  There  is  no  manager,  no  foreman,  who  can  do  it;  they 
have  no  time  to  do  it;  they  cannot  neglect  their  work.  Scien- 
tific Management  must  be  introduced  without  disturbing 
the  mill.  Suppose  you  ask  the  superintendent  to  make 
time-studies  and  development;  he  would  neglect  his  most 
important  duty,  which  is  to  get  the  production. 

MR.  WOBBECKE:  Take  the  finishing  room;  how  do  you 
calculate  a  man's  efficiency  there  where  his  work  is  dependent 
on  the  work  of  another  department?  Take  a  man  running 
the  nap-shears? 

MR.  SZEPESI:  That  is  a  good  question:  I  am  glad  you 
brought  it  up.  I  can  make  great  improvements  in  the 
finishing  department  probably  without  disturbing  the  con- 
ditions, but  I  start  at  the  foundation.  I  start  at  the  picker, 
or  even  at  the  storage  room,  and  then  go  up  gradually  from 
room  to  room  in  the  order  of  the  processes.  I  cannot  introduce 
standards  of  operation  and  standard  wages  in  any  department 
unless  all  the  departments  leading  up  to  it  are  on  a  certain 
efficiency  basis.  Every  department  is  dependent  upon  other 
departments  —  those  through  which  the  material  must  pass 
before  reaching  it — and  if  its  standards  are  established  upon 
the  basis  of  conditions  in  those  other  departments  which  are 
afterwards  changed,  the  standards  become  useless  and  have 
to  be  discarded.  You  start  at  the  beginning,  at  the  storage 
room;  that  is  the  place  to  start;  then  go  up  gradually.  You 
cannot  start  in  the  finishing  room  unless  you  have  improved 
all  the  departments  before  the  finishing  room. 


204  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


in.     SHOE  MANUFACTURE 

LEADER,   CHARLES   H.  JONES 
President,  The  Commonwealth  Shoe  and  Leather  Co.,  Boston 

MR.  JONES:  Gentlemen;  we  certainly  should  be  very 
much  pleased  that  our  trade  has  turned  out  such  an  inter- 
ested delegation.  It  is  rather  surprising,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that,  as  I  believe,  Scientific  Management  has  made  no 
very  great  progress  in  the  shoe  business.  So  far  as  I  know, 
the  only  concern  which  has  adopted  Scientific  Management  in 
a  large  way,  and  has  made  distinct  progress  in  consequence 
of  it,  is  the  W.  H.  McElwain  Co.  We  see  representatives  here 
of  that  company,  and  many  other  prominent  manufacturers, 
and  we  hope  to  hear  from  you  all;  if  not  with  experiences, 
at  least  with  inquiry,  because  from  the  efforts  made  by  the 
McElwain  company  and  the  very  surprising  and  gratifying 
results  which  they  have  accomplished,  it  does  seem  that 
Scientific  Management  is  especially  applicable  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  shoes.  I  should  be  glad  if  any  representative  of 
the  McElwain  company  will  give  us  his  views  or  experiences 
at  the  beginning  of  our  meeting. 

MR.  PRESCOTT:  As  a  representative  of  the  McElwain 
company,  I  feel  embarrassed  that  Mr.  Jones  has  called  upon 
me  so  early  in  this  meeting,  and  to  have  him  state  that  we  are 
the  only  shoe  factory  that  has  done  anything  in  Scientific 
Management.  I  feel  rather  that  the  entire  shoe  business  had 
adopted  a  good  many  of  the  principles,  even  before  Scientific 
Management  was  known  as  such.  The  putting  of  the  goods 
through  in  regular  schedule  time,  the  idea  of  a  uniform  pro- 
duction, and  many  of  those  points,  I  think  the  shoe  business 
had  been,  of  necessity  possibly,  driven  to  adopt.  One  of 
the  speakers  today  quoted  from  Adam  Smith's  writings  of 
a  century  ago,  that  the  best  economic  conditions  obtain 
when  goods  are  distributed  on  the  smallest  margin  of  profit. 
I  think  he  would  be  very  much  gratified  at  the  present 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  20$ 

conditions  in  the  shoe -manufacturing  business.  I  think  they 
affect  the  manufacture,  the  jobber  and  the  retailer  right 
through.  The  consumer  today  gets  his  shoes  with  as  little 
margin  as  in  any  industry  that  I  know  of. 

Now,  with  regard  to  Scientific  Management,  I  believe 
that  we  have  hardly  more  than  scraped  the  surface.  I 
must  say  that  we  have  been  tremendously  interested  hi  Mr. 
Taylor  and  his  many  writings  ever  since  this  first  came  before 
the  public  as  generally  as  it  has.  The  fact  that  business  is 
a  science,  from  the  start  to  the  finish,  is  a  thing  which  as  a 
company  we  have  had  instilled  into  us  ever  since  the  forma- 
tion of  the  company  by  Mr.  W.  H.  McElwain.  We  have 
realized  the  fact  that  each  move  should  be  studied,  straight 
from  the  person  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  business  to  the 
fireman  on  the  engine.  We  have  planning  departments 
throughout  the  entire  organization,  beginning  with  the  sales 
of  the  goods  and  following  through  the  manufacturing  divi- 
sion, with  the  floor  work  made  uniform  throughout.  It  is 
attempted  to  plan  every  move  in  advance.  In  our  labor 
department  we  attempt  plans  which  will  work  out  for  the 
uniform  earnings  of  the  men,  that  they  may  have  constant 
work,  and  therefore  earn  maximum  wages.  We  are  very 
positive  that  we  must  conduct  the  business  in  such  a 
manner  that  we  may  have  conditions  among  our  help 
entirely  satisfactory  to  them,  that  we  may  have  a  uniform 
production  and  make  a  uniform  amount  of  work  for  each 
man,  so  that  he  may  get  out  the  maximum  amount  of  work 
and  thereby  gain  maximum  earnings. 

I  do  not  know  what  more  I  can  add.  I  was  not  intending 
to  talk  today,  particularly  on  the  McElwain  company.  I 
want  to  talk  more  upon  the  generalities  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. I  think  we  must  all  expect  that  the  next  few  years 
will  see  great  advances  in  the  scientific  management  of  all 
business.  The  conditions  are  such  that  a  business  to  be 
conducted  on  a  profitable  basis  must  be  done  in  the  most 
efficient  way.  That  comes  only  by  a  careful,  complete 
planning,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  work. 


206  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  JONES:  If  there  are  any  of  the  gentlemen  present 
who  would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Prescott  questions  in  relation  to  the 
business,  probably  he  would  be  glad  to  answer.  For  myself, 
I  should  like  to  inquire  if  it  has  been  your  experience  that 
under  Scientific  Management  it  means  an  exceedingly  large 
output,  at  a  reasonable  or  low  price  per  unit,  and  if  your 
help  are  generally  satisfied.  Do  you  have  any  trouble  in 
that  direction? 

MR.  PRESCOTT:  They  appear  to  be  pretty  well  satisfied. 
We  have  had  no  trouble. 

MR.  LUITWIELER:  I  should  like  to  ask  Mr.  Prescott,— 
I  understand  practically  all  of  your  people  are  on  piece-work? 

MR.  PRESCOTT:  A  very  large  part  of  them. 

MR.  LUITWIELER:   Typewriters,  errand  boys,  and  so  on? 

MR.  PRESCOTT:  You  are  going  a  little  to  extremes,  al- 
though there  is  a  rather  interesting  thing  in  connection  with 
the  errand  boys,  which  I  might  tell  you  about.  We  had  a 
great  deal  of  trouble  getting  efficiency,  —  quick  service  among 
our  errand  boys.  We  studied  out  a  plan  whereby  that  work 
was  measured,  and  a  proper  unit  adopted  for  the  various 
classes  of  work;  for  instance,  answering  a  call  on  the  same 
floor  as  the  office.  We  divided  it  up  so  that  a  boy  got  a  cer- 
tain allowance  for  covering  that  distance.  Our  plan  was  that 
we  paid  the  boys  an  amount  a  week,  and  over  a  certain  amount 
they  received  a  bonus.  We  further  conceived  the  scheme 
of  dividing  the  department  up  into  two  teams,  so  that  the 
boys  competed,  and  the  result  has  been  that  we  think  we 
have  the  maximum  amount  out  of  all  our  errand  boys.  At 
the  end  of  the  week,  the  number  of  merits  of  each  team  are 
posted.  The  merits  are  in  small  units  and  run  somewhere 
in  the  30,000,  but  it  is  seldom  that  one  of  the  teams  is  more 
than  1,000  ahead.  One  week  it  will  be  one  team,  and  the 
next  week  the  other.  They  are  boys  of  the  age  of  young  men 
in  college.  The  spirit  of  competition  is  very  strong  in  them; 
consequently,  it  has  worked  out  in  a  very  interesting  way. 

I  think  that  is  a  little  outside  of  the  line  of  Scientific 
Management,  but  I  thought  you  might  be  interested  in  it. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  207 

MR.  DONOVAN:  I  noticed  Mr.  Prescott  was  listening  quite 
attentively  to  the  speaker  when  he  was  talking  about  the 
store  and  storeroom.  We  should  like  to  hear  from  hfrq  on 
that  point,  if  he  is  willing. 

MR.  PRESCOTT:  The  plan  of  a  central  supply  station  in 
the  factory  we  find  a  very  simple  matter.  Instead  of  having 
the  supplies  distributed  in  the  various  rooms  in  the  factory, 
we  have  adopted  a  central  station  for  them,  and  all  findings 
and  similar  articles  of  the  shoe  are  received  in  that  central 
supply  station.  As  to  the  amount  kept,  if  the  stock  falls 
below  a  certain  amount,  more  is  ordered.  Requisitions  are 
sent  to  the  central  storeroom  by  each  department  once  each 
day  and  filled.  Of  course,  that  keeps  the  factory  itself  entirely 
clear  of  any  superfluous  merchandise.  The  man  in  charge  of 
the  stores  is  responsible  for  the  quantities  ordered,  and  if  any 
stock  is  obtained,  he  is  responsible  for  getting  rid  of  it  quickly. 
It  has  been  a  very  efficient  manner  of  eliminating  waste  in  that 
department. 

MR.  JONES:  It  has  been  a  source  of  great  satisfaction  to 
me  to  see  meeting  with  us  today  Mr.  Tobin,  the  representative 
of  organized  labor  in  the  shoe  district  around  Brockton  and 
that  section.  Whatever  desires  we  may  have  in  regard  to 
the  improvement  of  service  and  efficiency  will,  of  course,  be 
largely  affected  by  the  attitude  of  our  employees.  I  have 
listened  with  a  good  deal  of  satisfaction  to  all  the  speakers, 
and  without  exception,  every  one  of  them  has  pointed  out 
that  the  welfare  of  the  employee  is  the  first  consideration  of 
Scientific  Management.  I  am  curious  to  know  if  that  senti- 
ment is  accepted;  if  the  laboring  men  themselves  and  their 
representatives  feel  that  Scientific  Management  is  really 
being  introduced  with  full  consideration  for  their  rights;  and 
if  Mr.  Tobin  will  speak  to  us  along  that  line,  we  shall  all  be 
glad. 

MR.  TOBIN:  Mr.  Chairman,  this  is  the  first  time  in  my 
short  life  that  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  being  at  college. 
I  came  today  to  learn  something.  This  Scientific  Manage- 
ment that  we  are  discussing  today  is,  in  my  opinion,  not  as 


208  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

new  as  many  people  suppose  it  is.  It  is  quite  ancient  in 
the  shoe  business;  that  is,  as  far  as  the  shoe  business  may 
be  considered  an  ancient  business  or  a  modern  business.  I 
am  speaking  now  of  the  factory  system,  distinct  and  separate 
from  the  old-fashioned  small  shop. 

The  factory  system  in  its  early  inception  developed  the 
piece-work  system,  and  growing  out  of  that  piece-work  system 
came  the  scientific  method  of  producing  shoes  in  the  swiftest 
possible  manner.  I  go  back  myself  to  the  early  eighties, 
when  I  was  working  in  a  shoe  factory  trimming  edges  and 
heels,  and  in  my  work,  which  did  not  require  more  than  two 
or  three  minutes  on  a  pair  of  shoes,  I  timed  every  movement, 
every  operation,  with  a  view  singly  of  eliminating  motion 
and  getting  out  the  work  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  I 
received  from  my  work  good  compensation  for  the  time  being, 
but  it  resulted  finally  in  the  lessening  of  the  sum  per  pair, 
per  dozen,  per  hundred,  that  I  received  for  my  work.  I  can 
see  in  this  present-day  Scientific  Management  possibilities 
that  are  great,  from  the  standpoint  of  economy  in  production. 
I  am  not  quite  clear  yet  that  this  system  is  going  to  work 
for  the  benefit  of  the  race.  I  am  inclined  rather  to  the  opinion 
that  the  policy  of  getting  more  pay  for  less  work  for  all  the 
people  would  be  better  in  the  long  run  than  the  attempt  to 
get  more  work  for  less  wages  for  fewer  people.  That  is  the 
fundamental  problem  which  I  see  in  this  so-called  Scientific 
Management.  It  always  has  an  eye  single  to  the  proposition 
of  greater  efficiency,  and  Mr.  Prescott  clearly  brought  that 
out  in  the  competition  between  two  groups  of  boys  doing 
messenger  service.  Now,  to  my  mind  as  a  humanitarian, 
that  is,  to  put  it  very  mildly,  a  vicious  system.  I  do  not 
know  how  it  was  conceived.  I  know  how  unreliable  boys 
are  in  doing  errands.  I  have  had  inconvenience  more  times 
than  once  in  that,  but  I  think  that  this  is  carried  to  an  enor- 
mous extreme.  Efficient  service  could  be  rendered,  and 
could  be  secured  from  boys  without  going  to  that  extreme. 

I  believe  that  the  whole  theory  of  Scientific  Management 
can  be  worked  out  in  other  industries  as  well  as  it  has  been 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  209 

worked  out  in  the  shoe  trade,  and  in  the  shoe  trade  we  have 
not  heard  much  of  it.  In  fact,  we  believe  that  in  the  modern 
shoe  factory  today  the  management  is  very,  very  scientific. 
No  other  kind  of  management  could  hope  to  succeed  in  the 
shoe  business.  I  believe  that  the  best  future  of  the  shoe 
business  will  be  promoted,  —  the  best  interests  of  the  whole 
craft,  both  from  the  manufacturing  end  and  from  the  worker's 
end,  will  be  served  —  by  devising  a  plan  of  economical  pro- 
duction. Economical  management  will  give  to  the  worker 
the  volume  of  work,  as  against  the  lack  of  volume  that  halt- 
ing, hesitating,  haphazard  management,  which  is  pursued  of 
necessity  by  the  small  manufacturer,  gives.  That  reflects 
upon  the  workmen,  and  the  difficulties  which  we  in  our  union 
have  are  largely  with  the  small  manufacturer.  We  manage 
to  settle  all  our  disputes  with  the  large  manufacturers  with 
more  or  less  good  feeling  and  satisfaction  on  both  sides,  but 
with  the  small  manufacturer  who  has  to  run  his  plant  at  a 
disadvantage  as  against  his  larger  competitor,  we  must  suffer 
the  inroads  which  he  attempts  to  make  upon  our  earnings 
and  upon  our  conditions  of  labor.  It  is  the  only  way  that  he 
can  offset  the  disadvantage  under  which  he  labors  with  his 
more  successful  competitor  of  larger  means.  It  has  been  my 
experience,  covering  quite  a  number  of  years,  that  the  small 
concern  gives  us  the  most  trouble.  It  is  a  source  of  very  great 
satisfaction  to  me  to  know  that  in  the  centers,  the  factories 
paying  the  highest  rate  of  wages,  in  which  the  earnings  of 
the  operatives  per  man  are  good,  are  among  the  most  suc- 
cessful; and  there  is  a  reason  for  that;  that  psychology  which 
Mr.  Kendall  mentioned  this  afternoon  is  the  one  which  I 
believe  is  responsible.  Those  men  who  receive  the  best  wages 
and  the  steadiest  employment  are  the  ones  who  are  giving 
back  the  best  service  in  return.  They  are  not  always  grate- 
ful for  their  employment  under  good  conditions,  but  as  a 
rule  the  workmen  appreciate  good  treatment  and  the  oppor- 
tunity to  earn  good  wages.  In  so  far  as  Scientific  Management 
can  be  made  to  make  conditions  favorable  to  the  workman, 
by  eliminating  unnecessary  delay  in  furnishing  the  materials, 


210  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

in  assembling  the  materials  to  his  hands,  and  by  making  it 
possible  for  him  to  get  out  the  work  without  running  around 
the  factory  seeking  some  part  of  the  shoe  which  he  is  working 
upon  as  a  means  of  getting  out  his  day's  work,  it  is  a  distinct 
gain  to  the  workman. 

Now,  in  Scientific  Management  that  can  be  eliminated, 
and  the  best  results  secured  in  that  way.  But  avoid  anything 
in  the  direction  of  the  premium  system,  anything  in  the  direc- 
tion of  saying  to  a  man,  "If  you  do  so  many  pairs  a  day,  we 
will  give  you  $3,  and  if  you  do  twice  as  many,  we  will  give 
you  $4.50."  That  will  never  work  successfully  for  any  con- 
siderable time,  and  that  is  one  of  the  difficulties  that  I  see  in 
Scientific  Management.  The  real  scientific  manager  will  not, 
in  my  opinion,  practise  that;  but  he  will  have  many  imi- 
tators who  will  seek  to  apply  that  method  and  call  it  Scientific 
Management.  That  is  where  the  danger  is  going  to  crop  out. 
I  am  not  interested  at  all,  and  would  not  be  interested  as  a 
workman,  to  get  $3  a  day  for  doing  100  pairs  of  shoes,  and 
$4.50  for  doing  200  pairs  of  shoes.  Some  of  the  advocates 
of  Scientific  Management  say  that  if  you  do  200  pairs, 
the  employer  gives  a  percentage  of  the  saving  as  a  bonus  to 
the  workman,  but  the  manufacturer  takes  the  larger  percent- 
age of  that  gain.  Now,  that  is  wrong,  because,  everything 
else  being  equal,  the  first  100  pairs  are  done  under  Scientific 
Management,  that  is,  under  conditions  most  favorable  to 
getting  out  100  pairs  of  shoes.  Then,  in  my  cupidity,  in  my 
desire  for  gain,  I  try  to  do  200  pairs.  I  do  200,  and  I  get 
$1.50  for  doing  the  second  100  pairs  and  $3.00  for  doing  the 
first  100.  That  is  a  system  which  will  not  in  the  long  run 
survive,  because  eventually  men  will  organize  to  protect 
themselves  against  it. 

Do  not  make  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  because  you 
establish  a  system  today,  you  are  able  to  say  that  your  help 
are  satisfied.  You  never  can  tell,  as  an  employer;  you  do 
not  know  the  state  of  mind  of  your  workmen.  I  have  found 
many  manufacturers  who  have  undertaken  to  tell  me  that 
they  know  how  their  workmen  feel.  The  up-to-date  manu- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  21 1 

facturer  will  tell  me  that  he  does  not  know  how  they  feel. 
That  is  one  thing  that  they  hide  from  him;  dissatisfaction 
will  break  out  some  day,  and  that  business  which  has  profited 
by  a  system  which  degrades  the  workman  will  find  itself  in 
serious  difficulty.  I  base  that  prediction  upon  my  knowledge 
of  human  nature.  The  psychology  of  the  working-man  must 
be  taken  into  account,  and  it  does  not  require  an  educated 
man  to  understand  it,  either.  A  very  ordinary,  and  a  very 
ignorant  man,  but  having  all  the  proclivities  of  the  human 
kind,  will  look  for,  and  will  find,  a  remedy,  and  will  suffer  in 
the  finding  of  that  remedy.  That  is  the  natural  outcome. 

I  hear  lots  of  talk  in  the  direction  of  promoting  harmony 
and  good-will  between  the  employer  and  workman  and  of 
figuring  out  and  reasoning  out  a  rational  and  reasonable  way 
to  get  a  fair  return  for  a  fair  day's  pay.  I  am  against  any- 
thing that  gives  a  good  day's  pay  for  an  abnormal  day's 
work.  It  takes  it  out  of  the  human  frame.  Many  of  these 
standardized  plants  are  standardized  and  run  today  at  the 
expense  of  the  men  who  are  in  the  business.  They  are  killing 
themselves  with  system,  and  they  will  eventually  kill  the 
business  with  system.  It  is  not,  to  my  mind,  reasonable  to 
expect  that  a  very  large  force  of  men  can  be  speeded  up  to 
the  last  notch  of  their  energy  and  continue  efficient  for 
any  considerable  length  of  time.  Of  course,  it  may  be  said 
that  those  who  become  inefficient  and  are  worn  out  can  be 
cast  aside.  That  may  be  the  materialistic  view,  but  that  will 
not  last,  because,  in  the  end,  you  must  conserve  the  human 
race.  You  must  conserve  the  human  race  in  order  to  have  a 
market  for  your  products,  and  all  the  Scientific  Management 
in  the  world  that  leaves  out  of  consideration  the  ability  to  con- 
sume and  the  wherewithal  to  consume,  is  bound  to  be  faulty. 

Now,  I  said  in  the  beginning  that  I  came  here  to  learn,  and 
not  to  teach,  and  what  I  have  said  now  is  just  with  reference 
to  this  Scientific  Management,  into  which  I  have  not  gone 
very  deeply.  There  are  some  good  ideas  in  connection  with 
it;  some  excellent  ideas.  One  point  made  by  Mr.  Kendall 
this  afternoon,  to  my  mind,  is  worth  a  visit  here,  if  nothing 


212  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

else:  the  selection  of  the  right  kind  of  steel,  to  make  the 
right  kind  of  a  razor.  There  is  a  peculiarity  which  is  true  in 
the  shoe  business.  The  selection  of  the  right  kind  of  leather, 
and  the  right  make,  to  make  the  kind  of  shoe  you  want,  is 
real  scientific  management. 

MR.  PRESCOTT:  I  want  to  say  one  thing  that  I  think  I 
ought  in  justice  to  say,  with  regard  to  this  plan  about  the 
office  boys.  The  competition  scheme  started  from  the  boys 
themselves,  as  a  request  from  them  that  they  might  be  al- 
lowed to  do  it.  I  think  I  should  be  inclined  to  agree  with 
Mr.  Tobin  that  the  scheme  might  be  pernicious  under  some 
circumstances.  In  starting  a  thing  of  that  kind,  we  make 
allowance  for  certain  conditions,  or  rather,  study  the  con- 
ditions. We  might  adopt  in  one  place  what  might  not  go  in 
another. 

MR.  JONES:  I  was  very  much  interested  in  what  Mr. 
Tobin  said  about  the  condition  in  the  early  eighties,  when 
men  were  paid  by  the  piece.  New  machines  were  being 
constantly  introduced.  Men  were  put  on  by  the  piece,  and 
when  they  attained  a  certain  proficiency,  and  earned  certain 
wages,  the  price  was  reduced  so  they  had  to  hustle  to  earn 
what  they  could  have  earned  originally  at  the  original  price. 
I  feel  that  that  was  one  of  the  most  serious  mistakes  the  shoe 
manufacturers  ever  made.  They  did  not  at  that  time  con- 
sider the  rights  of  labor  sufficiently.  There  is  no  question 
at  all  but  that  the  laborer  has  a  right  to  share  in  the  improve- 
ments brought  about  by  every  change  of  machinery,  or  any- 
thing else  in  which  he  is  a  participant.  I  believe  that  is  true. 
I  will  say  for  myself  that  I  was  one  of  the  offenders.  I  was 
in  the  field  at  that  time.  I  had  the  privilege  of  putting  in 
machinery  in  our  own  factory  to  take  the  place  of  hand  labor. 
We  did  not  know  what  the  right  prices  were.  We  did  not 
know  what  Scientific  Management  was,  and  time-study,  and 
all  these  things.  We  put  them  in  and  let  the  men  make  their 
own  speed.  When  they  earned  a  great  deal  more  than  their 
fellows,  we  docked  them  so  they  could  earn  about  the  same 
as  their  fellows.  That  is  not  Scientific  Management;  it  is 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  213 

exactly  the  opposite.  None  of  the  engineers  who  advocate 
Scientific  Management  would  for  a  moment  tolerate  that 
proposition  today. 

Just  one  other  point.  You  spoke  of  anything  that  could 
facilitate  the  work  coming  to  a  man,  so  that  he  might  do  a 
full  day's  work.  That  you  approve.  That  is  Scientific 
Management.  I  remember  an  experience  when  we  first  used 
lasting  machines.  They  had  been  in  use  in  other  sections  a 
long  while  before  they  were  used  in  South  Abington.  We 
finally  introduced  them,  and  a  piece-price  was  made.  The 
men  didn't  earn  very  large  wages,  and  didn't  do  a  great  many 
boots.  We  made  calf  boots  in  those  days.  I  timed  one  or 
two  of  them  to  see  why.  I  found  they  could  last  a  case 
easily  in  twenty- two  or  twenty- three  minutes,  but  they 
wouldn't  do  over  ten  or  twelve  cases  in  a  day  of  ten  hours. 
I  tried  to  find  out  why,  and  I  finally  ascertained  that  the 
things  Mr.  Tobin  describes  here  constantly  happened.  A 
man  would  get  a  case  to  last,  supposed  to  contain  twelve 
pairs.  There  would  be  one  "left"  gone.  He  would  have  to 
hunt  the  factory  over  to  find  it.  There  would  be  inner  soles 
omitted,  or  something  wrong  about  work  somebody  else  had 
done  that  put  him  back.  Perhaps  he  couldn't  get  the  uppers 
to  fit  the  last  he  had.  There  wasn't  a  plan;  the  planning 
department  was  wholly  absent.  So  finally  I  took  it  upon 
myself  to  agree  with  those  men  that  if  they  would  do  all  the 
goods  they  could,  I  would  see  that  they  had  stock  enough 
brought  to  them  to  keep  them  busy.  That  is  to  say,  the 
lasts  were  sorted,  brought  to  them  and  put  at  their  bench, 
and  they  did  the  work.  That  made  a  most  satisfactory 
result.  They  did  a  great  deal  more  work. 

Now,  right  there,  comes  another  point  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment. I  was  entitled  to  pay  for  the  time  of  the  man  who 
looked  up  those  things  for  them.  That  man's  time  was  very 
much  less  valuable  than  that  of  the  operatives.  These  men 
were  skilled  operatives,  and  a  man  at  fifteen  cents  an  hour 
could  easily  do  what  they  were  taking  their  time,  worth  twenty 
cents  or  thirty  cents  an  hour,  to  do.  Consequently,  we 


214  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

agreed  on  a  certain  basis,  and  for  years  that  basis  was  the 
rule  in  our  factory.  That  is,  we  agreed  to  find  the  work  and 
deliver  it  to  the  man;  then  he  did  it  at  a  price  which  proved 
advantageous  to  him,  and  also  economical  to  us.  Now  that, 
I  believe,  was  honestly  Scientific  Management. 

You  spoke  of  another  thing,  that  the  man  doing  100  pairs 
a  day,  who  was  speeded  up  by  the  bonus  system  to  do  200 
pairs,  was  entitled  to  double  pay;  that  is,  he  should  not  do  it 
for  $4.50,  when  he  got  $3.00  for  100  pairs.  Now,  your  state- 
ment would  be  exactly  true,  if  the  management  didn't  assist 
him  in  getting  that  result.  I  assume  he  could  not  do  that;  he 
could  not  get  double  the  production  unless  the  management 
contributed  something  that  helped  him.  They  do  contribute 
something;  that  is,  they  facilitate  his  work  in  some  way;  do 
a  part  of  the  work  that  he  did;  arrange  his  machine  in  a 
different  way,  and  see  that  the  racks  are  brought  to  him. 

MR.  TOBIN:  The  facilities  for  doing  the  first  100  pairs 
were  the  same  as  for  the  second  100  pairs. 

MR.  JONES:  If  they  were,  you  are  right  in  your  claim  that 
the  man  should  have  double  pay;  but  I  understand  Scientific 
Management  means  this:  that  the  man  cannot  double  his 
production  unless  the  management  does  contribute  to  his 
success,  and  if  they  do  contribute,  and  he  acknowledge  that 
they  contribute,  then  it  is  only  right  that  a  new  adjustment 
of  the  reward  should  be  made.  But  I  am  not  going  to  discuss 
that. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  with  us  an  engineer  who  knows 
something  about  Scientific  Management,  and  if  Mr.  Tobin 
did  not  hear  Mr.  Taylor  last  night,  perhaps  Mr.  Godfrey  will 
tell  us  something  about  it. 

MR.  GODFREY:  I  hesitated  when  asked  to  come  in  here  to- 
day, because  I  have  been  working  on  Scientific  Management 
only  fourteen  months.  Therefore,  I  am  just  beginning,  but 
I  have  had  the  very  great  opportunity  of  working  under  Mr. 
Taylor's  direction.  Some  of  the  things  questioned  I  can  ex- 
plain, and  one  is  the  question  of  the  changed  conditions. 
There  is  a  tremendous  difference  between  the  conditions  sur- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  21$ 

rounding  the  production  of  the  original  100  pairs  of  Mr.  Tobin, 
and  the  conditions  made  possible  for  the  workman  today.  Let 
us  see  what  some  of  those  things  are.  In  the  first  place,  under 
the  old  conditions  they  were  all  the  time  hunting  for  tools  and 
waiting  for  materials.  Today  there  are  always  men  coming 
up  to  deliver  every  single  thing  required  at  the  workman's 
machine.  After  the  operation  is  complete,  the  move-man 
takes  the  finished  work  and  delivers  it  to  the  next  machine 
or  wherever  it  is  going.  There  are  inspections  between  each 
machine,  to  make  absolutely  certain  that  every  part  is  de- 
livered to  the  machine  and  that  it  is  properly  taken  from 
that  machine  to  the  next.  And  you  must  remember  in  this 
connection  that  you  must  pay  the  salaries  of  the  move-men 
and  inspectors,  doing  work  which  the  workman  used  to  do. 

Now,  the  question  of  preparation.  For  every  operation 
that  goes  on,  there  is  preparation  made.  The  clearest  pos- 
sible instructions  are  sent  to  the  workman  in  the  way  of 
instruction  cards,  tool  lists  and  drawings.  Every  single  task 
explained  as  we  explain  it  is  a  definite  lesson  to  the  workman. 
The  tools  given  him  are  not  only  the  right  tools,  but  the 
best  possible  tools  for  the  present  state  of  the  art.  If  there  is 
a  block  wanted,  the  workman  does  not  hunt  up  a  carpenter  to 
have  a  block  made.  The  right  block  is  provided  as  specified 
in  advance  by  an  expert.  Then,  when  all  preparation  has 
been  definitely  made,  the  speed-boss  or  machine  instructor 
comes  to  help  the  man  in  his  work.  The  speed-boss,  by  the 
way,  is  the  man  who  determines  the  speed,  feed  and  condi- 
tion of  the  machine,  not  the  speed  of  the  man,  and  who  assists 
and  instructs  the  workman.  He  does  not  speed  him  up  as  is 
falsely  stated  time  and  again. 

Now,  what  it  amounts  to  is  this:  Scientific  Management  is 
the  only  type  of  management  of  which  I  know,  which  delib- 
erately takes  up  not  only  investigation,  but  the  other  side  of 
the  problem,  education.  It  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  see  the 
planning  room  cooperating  every  single  hour  with  the  work- 
man outside,  showing  him  how  best  to  do  the  work,  and 
encouraging  him  to  do  it  in  the  best  way. 


216  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Take  another  example.  In  scientifically  managed  shops 
there  are  times  when  some  class  or  type  of  machines  will  be 
busy,  and  another  class  or  type  will  be  idle.  There  are  times 
when  the  second  group  will  be  busy,  and  the  first  idle.  Every 
man  in  a  scientifically  managed  shop  has  his  capacity.  He  is 
not  only  instructed  how  to  run  his  regular  machine,  but  he  is 
given  an  opportunity  to  enlarge  his  machine  knowledge,  thus 
increasing  his  range  of  productivity  by  systematic  instruction 
with  an  instructor  right  on  the  spot.  The  instructor  teaches 
him  first  how  to  operate  machine  No.  i,  we  may  say;  then  a 
different  machine  representing  a  second  group;  then  he  is 
trained  on  a  third  type  and  a  fourth;  and  the  workman  is  paid 
more  as  his  capacity  increases.  That  is,  he  is  constantly  edu- 
cated to  run  a  greater  number  of  types  of  machines  with  his  pay 
increasing  as  his  education  advances.  Is  not  this  progressive 
education  as  far  as  possible  from  making  automatons  of 
men?  We  have  a  planning  board  and  chart  by  which  we  can 
check  any  given  job  in  ten  minutes,  and  switch  the  work  from 
one  set  of  machines  onto  another  set  of  machines.  And  we 
know,  moreover,  which  men  can  do  the  work  on  any  given 
machine.  Every  man  is  constantly  being  trained  for  some- 
thing better  under  Scientific  Management.  He  has  a  possi- 
bility before  him,  which  has  never  existed  before,  as  far  as  I 
know,  in  any  other  system  of  education;  because,  from  the 
apprentice  boy  who  comes  in  at  ten  cents  an  hour,  up  to  the 
president,  every  man  is  being  trained,  and  always  knows  that 
the  opportunity  is  open  for  advancement. 

Now,  to  come  back  to  the  question  between  the  manage- 
ment and  the  man.  If  the  conditions  were  the  same  on  the 
100  pairs  and  the  200  pairs,  it  would  be  absolutely  unfair. 
But  you  have  made  all  this  preparation;  you  have  to 
have  tools  and  your  tool-room;  your  foreman;  your  in- 
spectors and  your  speed-boss,  all  of  whom  are  instructors 
who  are  telling  men  how  best  to  do  their  work.  The  pay 
of  all  these  men  has  to  come  in  on  the  operation;  the  move- 
man's  pay  has  to  be  included;  the  route-clerk,  who  told  how 
the  work  should  go  from  one  machine  to  the  other  in  the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  217 

correct  sequence  of  operations,  has  to  come  in.  There  is  one 
man  on  the  planning  side  to  three  or  five  on  the  working  side. 
These  men  are  producers  as  much  as  the  men  actually  at  the 
machine.  Why?  Because  they  are  making  it  possible  to 
produce  by  taking  away  delays  from  the  operative;  enabling 
him  to  do  his  best  possible  work.  How  does  it  come?  It 
comes  because  Scientific  Management  is  simply  seeking  for 
the  best  possible  way  of  doing  any  given  piece  of  work.  I 
sometimes  call  it  the  doctrine  of  research.  That  does  not 
mean  anything  very  big.  Primeval  man  was  making  a  re- 
search when  he  hunted  for  roots  that  were  edible  as  against 
those  that  were  not.  We  are  taking  the  very  best  means 
that  modern  science  affords;  all  the  work  that  has  been 
done  up  to  the  present  time  in  chemistry,  biology,  physics; 
in  all  the  great  branches  of  human  knowledge;  and  we  are 
trying  to  apply  it  to  the  betterment  of  industrial  processes, 
and  that  means  the  upkeep  or  conservation  of  the  man,  as 
much  as  it  means  the  upkeep  or  conservation  of  the  machine. 

Mr.  Tobin  spoke  about  harmony.  If  a  workman  does  not 
succeed,  we  consider  that  it  is  up  to  us  to  show  him  how  to  suc- 
ceed. Instead  of  blaming  him,  we  try  first  to  see  what  is 
the  matter  with  the  management.  If  a  workman  can't  do 
the  work  in  one  job,  find  another  job  for  him,  put  him  at  that, 
and  educate  him  there.  If  a  man  has  a  job  which  needs 
strength  in  his  hands,  and  he  has  not  that,  Scientific  Manage- 
ment does  not  say,  "Throw  him  out."  It  says,  "Find  the 
job  he  can  do  with  the  hands  which  he  has";  that  is,  fit  the 
man  to  the  work.  To  get  the  maximum  production,  high 
wages,  and  a  low  labor  cost,  there  is  one  road.  We  are 
working  all  the  time  to  find  what  is  the  scientific  law 
under  which  a  man  should  work.  It  is  the  substitution  of 
exact  knowledge  for  guesswork,  combined  with  a  complete 
change  of  mental  attitude  on  the  part  of  both  employer  and 
employee. 

MR.  TOBIN:  I  subscribe  to  every  one  of  your  propositions, 
but  the  difficulty  is  that  there  are  not  enough  engineers  to 
go  around,  and  there  will  be  imitators. 


218  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  GODFREY:  Of  course  there  will  be  imitators;  but  yet, 
you  wouldn't  stop  chemistry,  which  has  given  us  so  much, 
or  medicine,  which  has  given  us  so  much,  because  there  might 
be  few  doctors  or  chemists  qualified  to  do  the  work. 

MR.  TOBIN:  Is  this  a  piece-work  system? 

MR.  GODFREY:  Ours  is  a  task  bonus  system.  The  task 
is  wholly  different  from  the  straight  piece-work  system.  The 
task  is  determined  by  scientific  experiment.  It  is  only 
determined  when  everything  has  been  done  to  make  it 
possible  for  the  workman  to  do  the  task. 

MR.  TOBIN:  Has  the  workman  any  part  in  fixing  that 
task?  If  I  explain  my  reason  for  asking  the  question,  perhaps 
you  will  understand  me.  I  go  upon  the  theory  that  it  takes 
two  sides  to  make  a  bargain,  and  if  the  workman's  task  is 
fixed  without  his  consent,  it  may  be  fixed  by  a  man  of  your 
stamp,  or  it  may  be  fixed  by  a  scalawag. 

MR.  GODFREY:  There  you  have  a  difficulty,  but  I  would 
not  set  any  task  if  I  could  not  bring  the  data  and  convince 
any  man. 

MR.  TOBIN:  I  am  satisfied  of  that,  but  other  men  might 
undertake  it. 

MR.  GODFREY:  The  answer  is  that  it  is  not  Scientific  Man- 
agement. 

MR.  TOBIN:  That  is  what  I  am  afraid  of. 

MR.  GODFREY:  I  know  it,  but  I  say  again  that  neither 
medical  science,  biological  science,  Scientific  Management  or 
any  other  science  should  be  opposed  in  any  way  because  unfit 
men  may  pursue  that  science.  If  you  will  pardon  an  illustra- 
tion, take  the  automobile.  That  is  a  very  dangerous  machine 
in  the  hands  of  an  unfit  man.  But  the  community  guards 
itself  from  the  unfit  men.  The  joy  rider  moreover  is  likely 
to  be  killed  by  his  own  car.  Scientific  Management  would  be 
extremely  likely  to  prove  a  boomerang  in  the  hands  of  a  man 
who  tried  to  use  it  wrongly. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  Mr.  Tobin,  I  believe  you  are  trying  the 
task  bonus  system  in  the  Douglas  factory,  are  you  not,  in 
the  cutting  room? 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  219 

MR.  TOBIN:  No,  $3  a  day  for  hand  cutting,  and  $3.50  for 
machine  cutting. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  How  about  the  bonus? 

MR.  TOBIN:  There  is  no  bonus  that  we  know  anything 
about.  The  point  system  was  abolished  two  years  and  a 
half  ago. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  They  did  try  the  point  system? 

MR.  TOBIN:  Yes. 

MR.  GODFREY:  But  did  they  know  what  the  task  was? 
Had  they  done  this  work  first? 

MR.  TOBIN:  Yes.  They  had  a  certain  number  of  points 
for  each  pattern.  If  the  pattern  was  complicated,  they  got 
more  points.  It  was  a  piece-work  system. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  I  should  like  to  ask  one  question;  that  is, 
how  are  we  going  to  decide  what  is  a  proper  day's  work; 
whether  it  is  that  which  is  set  before  starting  in  upon  Scientific 
Management  or  after?  Where  do  you  start  in,  and  where 
do  you  find  the  proper  amount  to  give  a  man  for  nine  hours 
work,  or  eight  hours? 

MR.  GODFREY:  No  task  is  set  until  the  "move"  is  abso- 
lutely fixed ;  until  everything  is  taken  away  from  the  machine 
and  everything  is  brought  up  to  it.  That  is,  the  management 
takes  the  responsibility  of  doing  all  the  work  it  can  before 
it  sets  a  task  for  the  workman. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  What  is  the  proper  day's  pay  for  a  man? 
That  is  what  I  want  to  start  with;  what  is  the  living  wage? 

MR.  GODFREY:  That  is  one  of  the  problems  that  has  not 
been  determined  yet  and  which  varies  greatly  in  different 
places  and  under  different  conditions.  It  is  an  extremely 
difficult  problem  and  needs  an  enormous  amount  of  study; 
and  it  is  being  studied. 

MR.  MERRICK:  It  seems  to  me  that  Mr.  Tobin  assumes 
that  any  increase  in  output  carries  a  corresponding  increase 
in  effort  or  labor.  It  seems  to  me,  from  what  I  have  gathered 
at  the  lectures,  that  the  ami  of  Scientific  Management  is  to 
increase  the  output,  without  increasing  the  effort  of  the 
workman. 


220  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  GODFREY:  And  without  increasing  the  effort  of  the 
workman  to  the  point  where  he  is  tired  out.  Today,  one- 
half  the  time,  the  workman  is  tired  out  at  the  end  of  the  day. 

MR.  TOBIN:  If  I  make  myself  plain,  I  think  it  will  make 
unnecessary  a  good  many  questions.  I  say  that  if  I  have 
100  pairs  of  shoes  to  do,  as  a  task,  for  a  day's  work,  which 
will  give  me  $3,  and  then  I  do  another  100  — 

MR.  SLAYTON:  Under  the  same  conditions? 

MR.  TOBIN:  Under  exactly  the  same  conditions. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  That  can't  exist  under  Scientific  Manage- 
ment; you  can't  increase  it. 

MR.  TOBIN:  I  am  speaking  now  of  the  so-called  bonus 
system,  and  how  much  that  would  apply,  and  how  much 
relationship  there  might  be  between  that  and  Scientific 
Management.  I  don't  know;  I  confess  that;  but  that  is 
the  thing  that  I  am  afraid  of,  that  many  people  will  under- 
take to  establish  a  bonus  system.  The  imitators  of  the  Taylor 
system  will  undertake  that.  That  is  an  old,  old  story  in  the 
shoe  business.  These  tasks  have  been  given,  and  the  man  of 
great  speed  and  capacity  will,  in  his  greed  for  more  wages,  do 
twice  as  much  work  for  half  as  much  more  money,  under 
exactly  the  same  conditions.  Now,  that  is  one  of  the  things 
that  has  made  the  enormous  speed  that  you  will  find  in  the 
shoe  factories  today.  You  go  into  the  modern  shoe  factory, 
and  you  will  find  every  man  working  at  top  speed,  and  still 
it  is  said  that  there  is  a  limitation  of  production.  There 
never  will  be  a  time  when  it  can  be  said  with  truth  that  there 
is  a  limitation  of  production.  That  is  charged  up  against 
the  shoemakers  by  the  shoe  manufacturers,  but  the  fact  is 
that  the  very  reverse  is  true.  I  remember  the  time  when  I 
used  to  consider  it  a  splendid  day's  work  to  do  200  pairs  of 
ladies'  shoes.  In  later  years,  I  saw  the  time  when  I  could  do 
sixty  pairs  in  an  hour,  if  I  wanted  to  go  to  a  ball  game.  To- 
day, men  can  do  twice  as  much.  That  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  they  have  machinery  to  do  it  more  easily.  The  round- 
ing machine  makes  it  easier  for  the  edge  turner,  and  other 
conditions  make  it  simpler  and  easier  to  do  the  work. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  221 

MR.  SLAYTON:  I  think  we  all  understand  Mr.  Tobin  now. 
The  conditions  he  assumes  cannot  exist  under  Scientific 
Management;  that  is,  asking  a  man  to  do  double  the  task 
in  the  same  conditions. 

MR.  GODFREY:  Absolutely  impossible. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  It  could  not  exist,  and  it  could  not  be 
accomplished,  I  think.  There  would  be  such  an  uprising 
that  I  do  not  think  anybody  who  understands  Scientific 
Management  would  tolerate  it.  I  think  what  you  say,  Mr. 
Tobin,  is  right;  that  from  your  particular  position  you  have 
something  to  fear  from  the  imitators,  the  unskilled  and  the 
unscientific  management;  but  from  what  we  will  get  from 
the  learned,  I  do  not  think  that  you  or  the  workingman  has 
anything  to  fear,  but  everything  to  gain. 

MR.  TOBIN:  We  are  in  the  same  position  exactly  with  the 
quack  doctor. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  And  the  professional  doctors.  We  all 
know  after  a  while  the  quack  doctors  and  the  real  doctors. 
Why?  Because  the  real  doctor  has  a  reputation  and  the 
quack  doctor  has,  too,  but  of  a  different  kind. 

MR.  TOBIN:  In  the  same  way  that  you  tell  the  difference 
between  mushrooms  and  toadstools. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  It  is  getting  late;  I  think  it  would  be  better 
than  to  ask  questions  if  some  of  you  would  get  up  and  tell 
what  is  the  strongest  impression  that  has  been  made  on  you 
by  the  lectures  and  papers  that  you  have  heard.  It  has  cer- 
tainly made  some  impression,  I  think,  on  every  member.  We 
all  listened  with  the  inner  idea  of  "How  can  we  apply  that 
to  our  particular  business?  How  is  it  going  to  benefit  me 
in  my  factory?"  We  have  all  made  notes,  either  on  paper 
or  in  our  minds.  Now,  I  think,  if  some  who  have  been 
listening  will  tell  what  you  have  got  out  of  this,  it  may 
benefit  us  all. 

MR.  LANE:  May  I  ask  if,  in  answering  that  proposition, 
some  of  the  men  might  bring  out  whether  they  have  studied 
in  their  factory  any  of  the  present  means  in  the  operations, 
so  as  to  determine  what  the  task  should  be,  and  whether  this 


222  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

task  problem  can  be  developed  and  settled  by  some  men  in 
the  factory,  or  whether  we  must  go  outside  entirely  to  get 
an  expert  in  order  to  accomplish  it. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  One  thing  I  heard  a  manufacturer  say, — 
I  won't  call  him  by  name.  He  was  making  a  woman's  kid 
shoe,  with  patent  leather  tip,  and  he  found  a  great  deal  of 
difference  in  the  day's  work.  Some  girls  might  do  ten  dozen, 
some  might  do  twelve,  and  the  next  day  they  might  fall 
back  to  eight.  He  told  one  girl  that  he  wanted  to  see  what 
she  could  do.  He  timed  it,  and  found  out  she  could  do  a 
great  deal  more.  He  said,  "Are  you  willing  to  do  it?"  She 
seemed  to  be  willing.  He  said,  "Instead  of  paying  you  $1.50 
a  day,  I  will  give  you  $2  a  day."  She  was  getting  $9  a  week, 
and  she  doubled  her  production.  She  could  do  it  easily.  In 
the  first  place  she  said,  "Well,  there  is  a  certain  kind  of  filler 
that  I  used  in  another  factory.  If  you  will  use  that  kind  of 
filler,  I  can  do  my  work  so  much  more  quickly.  Another 
thing;  the  paper  that  you  are  using  on  that  tip  is  too  coarse. 
If  you  will  use  a  finer  paper,  I  won't  have  to  use  so  much 
filler."  So  that  girl  and  this  manufacturer  worked  out  a 
condition  that  made  it  easier  for  her  to  perform  more  work. 
She  got  33  per  cent  increase,'  and  he  got  a  saving  of  33  per 
cent,  we  will  say,  but  the  girl  did  not  have  to  work  any 
harder,  because  the  two  of  them  had  found  a  method  by 
which  she  could  do  more.  Now  Mr.  Tobin,  I  know,  would 
not  object  to  that  kind  of  an  improvement. 

MR.  TOBIN:  Certainly  not. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  That  is  the  most  important  feature  of 
Scientific  Management.  One  thing  Mr.  Taylor  said  last  night, 
is  that  in  talking  with  the  manufacturers  who  make  machines, 
he  told  them  that  not  one  out  of  fifty  of  their  machines  is 
speeded  right.  Now,  that  was  the  most  startling  thing,  to 
me,  that  Mr.  Taylor  said  last  night.  I  don't  know  but  my 
machines  are  speeded  wrong.  I  know  that  at  times  the  work- 
men have  put  a  drag  on  their  nigger-heads  so  they  would  go 
faster,  and  that  they  were  running  their  machines  too  fast 
and  we  had  to  take  them  off.  I  know  that  at  other  times  when 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  223 

we  wanted  to  speed  up  we  have  speeded  the  machine  up. 
I  think  there  is  a  chance  in  the  shoe  manufacturing  business 
to  find  out  whether  our  machines  are  running  at  the  right 
speed.  Now,  if  the  machine  can  be  speeded  up,  for  instance 
a  trimmer,  so  that  it  can  do  a  great  deal  more  work,  I  don't 
know  but  that  the  workmen  would  be  benefited;  that  is,  if  it 
could  be  done  with  reasonableness.  It  would  have  to  be  so 
that  he  could  do  it.  You  cannot  put  through  science,  I  believe, 
unless  both  agree.  I  believe  that  you  must  convince  the  work- 
men. I  think,  for  universal  success  in  manufacturing,  you 
must  have  the  other  fellow  with  you  all  the  time.  If  you 
don't,  you  are  going  to  be  in  trouble. 

MR.  GODFREY:  Absolutely.  Mr.  Taylor's  first  considera- 
tion is  the  workman. 

MR.  WEBNER:  The  late  Carroll  D.  Wright,  the  United 
States  Labor  Commissioner,  said  that  instead  of  labor  and 
capital  being  the  same,  they  were  reciprocal.  That  transac- 
tion is  the  best  and  most  enduring  for  business  which  is 
beneficial  alike  to  buyer  and  seller. 

I  gathered  from  Mr.  Tobin's  remarks  regarding  200  pairs 
as  compared  to  100  that  he  would  favor  withholding  produc- 
tion, for  the  reason  that  he  mentioned:  it  would  be  for  the 
good  of  mankind.  When  he  said  that,  I  harked  back  to  the 
days  when,  twenty-five  years  ago,  I  was  carrying  United  States 
mail  on  the  pony  express  in  Montana.  There  was  a  cook  at 
a  ranch  house  there  who  was  very  bitterly  opposed  to  rail- 
roads. We  were  about  125  miles  north  of  the  Northern 
Pacific,  and  I  met  him  one  time  in  Billings,  and  he  actually 
turned  his  back  on  a  railroad  train.  He  wouldn't  look  at  it, 
because  he  took  the  position  that  the  railroads  had  been  a  curse 
to  humanity.  He  said,  "Look  at  the  number  of  freighters  that 
carried  wheat  and  oats  from  Mandan  and  Bismarck  into  St. 
Paul.  Look  at  the  number  of  those  men  who  were  put  out 
of  business."  I  said,  "On  that  same  line  between  Mandan 
and  St.  Paul,  there  are  this  minute  more  brakemen  employed 
than  there  were  freighters,  to  say  nothing  of  the  conductors, 
station  agents,  telegraph  operators,  train  despatchers  and  a 


224  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

hundred  and  one  other  employees  of  a  railroad."  Scientific 
Management,  as  I  take  it,  is  a  survival  of  the  fittest. 

I  want  to  ask  somebody  who  knows,  if  Scientific  Manage- 
ment is  based  largely  on  the  " sheet  system";  I  assume 
it  is. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  It  is.  The  "sheet  system,  "so-called,  in  a  shoe 
factory  is  the  planning  room,  the  same  as  it  is  in  a  steel  shop. 

MR.  WEBNER:  I  understand.  Well,  then,  the  efficiency 
system  does  not  detract  from  that  sheet  system. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  No. 

MR.  REED:  Mr.  Prescott  stated  that  the  shoe  business  has 
been  working  under  a  Scientific  Management  plan  for  a  great 
many  years,  and  it  is  so;  but  the  thing  it  seems  to  me  neces- 
sary to  impress  on  Mr.  Tobin,  particularly,  is  that  the  desire 
on  the  part  of  every  shoe  manufacturer  to  improve  his  shoe 
business  is  the  desire  to  improve  the  conditions  for  the  men. 
If  we  are  here  listening  to  Scientific  Management  propaganda 
at  all,  it  is  because  we  believe  that  is  the  only  possible  founda- 
tion on  which  we  can  advance.  Now,  we  don't  want  the  man 
to  do  twice  as  much  for  one-third  more.  We  want  to  im- 
prove the  conditions;  find  a  sandpaper  that  is  less  coarse; 
find  a  filler  that  is  better;  find  some  combination  that  is 
better  for  the  workman,  so  that  it  is  actually  less  work  for 
them  to  do  twice  as  much  for  us,  and  they  are  better  satisfied 
at  one-third  more. 

MR.  TOBIN:  Mr.  Chairman,  before  we  adjourn,  I  want 
to  say  that  we  have  in  our  organization  a  staff  of  men  who 
are  really  experts.  We  don't  call  them  expert  systematizers, 
but  just  call  them  plain  organizers.  When  wage  questions 
arise  in  factories,  they  go  and  look  the  situation  over,  and  if 
they  can  make  a  suggestion  to  the  employer  whereby  he  can 
change  his  system  and  method  of  doing  work,  and  if  he  will 
act  on  that  suggestion,  it  is  equivalent  to  settling  the  question 
of  wages.  Hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  cases  have  been 
settled  in  that  way  where  the  workmen  desired  an  increase 
in  wages.  Instead  of  the  increase,  we  improved  the  system 
by  a  suggestion.  You  know  manufacturers  get  into  a  rut. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  22$ 

MR.  REED:  That  is  what  we  are  trying  to  get  out  of,  Mr. 
Tobin. 

MR.  TOBIN:  They  follow  that  year  in  and  year  out.  If 
somebody  comes  and  makes  a  suggestion  that  appeals  to 
them,  they  make  the  change,  and  it  is  largely  beneficial  to 
them,  and  to  the  workman  as  well.  We  have  had  many 
settlements  of  wage  questions  without  any  increase  in 
wages,  but  with  an  improvement  in  conditions.  It  is  more 
satisfactory  than  if  there  had  been  the  increase  in  wages. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  I  know  that  to  be  the  fact,  because  33  per 
cent  of  the  cases  that  have  come  to  me  from  our  union  shop 
in  the  last  few  years  have  been  settled  by  that  method.  It 
is  not  because  we  put  in  Scientific  Management.  I  was  up 
watching  the  Goodyear  stitchers  one  day,  and  I  noticed 
the  men  who  came  to  wind  their  bobbins.  There  was  more 
or  less  waiting,  but  what  jarred  me  most  was  that  all 
around  that  bobbin-winder  there  were  pieces  of  thread  of 
different  lengths,  that  those  fellows  had  cut,  all  waxed.  They 
stuck  up  the  racks;  they  got  into  the  wheels.  I  said  to  the 
foreman,  "Why  do  they  have  to  cut  off  as  much  as  that?" 
He  said,  "I  don't  know;  they  are  in  a  hurry. "  I  said,  "Why 
don't  you  teach  this  boy  to  do  it?"  Well,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  asked  the  men,  and  it  took  them  about  thirty  minutes 
a  day  to  wind  those  bobbins,  because  they  had  to  wait,  etc. 
I  finally  got  a  boy  whom  we  paid  $5  or  $6  a  week.  We 
taught  him  to  wind  bobbins  and  he  didn't  waste  any  of 
the  thread.  We  found  it  took  only  half  a  day.  We  paid 
him  for  his  work,  and  increased  the  workman's  wages  10 
per  cent.  They  told  me,  "If  you  hadn't  done  that,  we  would 
have  asked  an  increase."  We  saved  the  thread,  which  paid 
for  the  boy.  We  didn't  ask  the  workmen  to  pay  us  more. 

There  are  a  lot  of  such  things,  in  every  factory  I  believe, 
that  we  can  all  study.  We  put  that  boy  on  a  grooving  welter 
because  we  didn't  have  enough  for  him  to  do  on  the  other 
proposition.  We  got  our  welting  grooved  all  alike,  and  it 
was  much  better.  We  saved  an  increased  demand  from  the 
men  by  increasing  their  wages  practically  10  per  cent,  —  also 


226  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

an  increased  demand  from  the  stitchers  —  just  as  much  as  if 
we  had  done  it  the  other  way,  that  is,  by  giving  the  task  or 
bonus  system.  I  think  there  are  a  great  many  situations  like 
that. 

MR.  LAMB:  I  want  to  give  a  little  example  of  Scientific 
Management,  as  far  as  we  have  seen  it.  Bottom-stamping 
in  our  factory  has  always  been  done  by  a  boy.  That  is,  the 
boy  would  size  the  shoes  up,  then  he  would  bottom-stamp 
them,  and  they  would  go  to  the  treeing  room.  It  was  always 
a  troublesome  point.  We  always  had  what  we  thought  was  a 
surplus  of  help  there,  and  we  began  to  analyze  the  operation  of 
stamping  bottoms,  and  sizing  up  those  shoes.  The  shoes 
would  come  to  him,  oftentimes,  in  sixty-pair  cases.  He  would 
sort  them  from  a  case  on  to  an  empty  sixty-pair  rack.  In 
other  words,  he  had  two  racks  to  sort  to.  Sometimes  there 
might  be  more  than  six  pairs  that  would  go  on  one  shelf 
conveniently.  It  resulted  in  our  building  a  rack  for  sizing 
up  shoes.  Then  in  the  stamping  itself,  we  found  that  the 
boy  was  left-handed,  and  he  was  working  with  his  right  hand, 
on  the  right-hand  side  of  his  machine.  He  had  a  false  motion. 
We  changed  that. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  You  didn't  fire  the  boy? 

MR.  LAMB:  No.  We  also  inquired  into  the  speed  of  the 
machine.  I  presume  our  methods  were  primitive,  compared 
to  what  they  may  be  eventually,  but  we  got  the  machine 
speeded  right.  We  corrected  a  little  slipping  which  appeared 
in  the  clutch  of  the  mechanism  of  the  machine.  That  was 
brought  to  our  knowledge  by  the  boy's  observation,  and  the 
final  result  was  that  he  had  his  shoes  on  one  side  of  the  rack. 
He  would  stamp  the  shoe  and  sort  it  at  the  same  operation. 
The  boys  were  earning  $9  a  week.  We  set  a  task,  and  made 
the  bonus  $3,  and  are  accomplishing  the  result.  We  are 
satisfied  and  they  are  satisfied. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  And  they  are  getting  $12. 

MR.  MERRICK:  One  strong  impression  that  I  have  gained 
from  these  lectures  is  this,  that  it  makes  no  difference  what- 
ever, what  the  shoe  manufacturers  think  of  this  system.  The 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  227 

time  is  fast  approaching  when  any  man  who  stays  in  the  game 
will  be  forced  to  adopt  it. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  should  like  to  make  one 
statement  in  reference  to  a  change  that  was  made  in  our 
factory  some  years  ago.  The  machinery  being  out  of  line, 
we  had  an  engineer  come  in  to  study  how  best  to  keep  the 
stream  moving.  After  we  had  taken  his  advice  and  had 
the  machines  rearranged  we  found  we  had  saved  thirty-seven 
miles  a  day,  on  pushing  one  rack  of  twenty-four  pair  of  shoes 
straight  ahead, — on  not  very  good  floors,  at  that.  So,  averag- 
ing it  on  either  piece  basis  or  day  basis  or  salary  basis,  it  was 
just  the  same.  It  was  a  saving  for  the  men,  as  well  as  our- 
selves. To  my  mind,  that  is  one  of  the  instances  of  Scientific 
Management,  or  efficiency;  call  it  what  you  will. 

MR.  CUSHMAN:  You  ask  for  impressions.  This  is  one 
impression  that  has  been  made  upon  my  mind;  this  is  in  the 
shoe  business,  perhaps,  especially.  I  say  nothing  about  other 
trades.  We  have  been  endeavoring  to  fix  the  lowest  pos- 
sible piece-price  at  which  we  could  get  our  work  done. 
Now,  had  we  used  half,  perhaps,  of  the  efforts  which  we  can 
now  use  if  we  thoroughly  understood  all  the  methods  of 
Scientific  Management,  to  reduce  our  cost,  we  should  have 
bettered  the  condition  of  our  men,  and  also  should  have 
reduced  the  cost.  In  other  words,  we  have  made  the  condi- 
tions harder,  and  put  up  a  fight  for  ourselves,  when  we  might 
have  had  peace  and  harmony,  and  accomplished  the  results 
the  other  way,  not  only  to  our  own  advantage,  but  to  the 
advantage  of  the  men.  This  thing  has  happened  when  we 
had  by  a  quick  man  fixed  a  low  piece-price,  and  were  satisfied 
with  it.  We  left  that  thing;  that  was  the  end  of  it.  Now, 
we  are  petered  out;  that  man  was  not  given  another  job.  He 
was  not  attracted;  that  did  not  represent  a  yearly  wage  to 
him;  it  simply  represented  one  day's  work,  or  two  days'  or 
a  week  or  a  month,  whereas  he  had  to  have  bread  365  days 
in  the  year.  Now,  that  has  been  the  strongest  thing  that  has 
come  to  my  mind,  the  duty  that  we  owe  to  ourselves  and  to 
our  men  to  adopt  this  system,  for  just  that  one  thing. 


228  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  REED:  I  should  like  to  ask  whether  in  piece-work  or 
in  day-work  it  has  been  easier  to  establish  in  the  workman's 
mind  the  fact  that  he  was  to  benefit  by  the  scientific  study. 

MR.  GODFREY:  My  idea  is  that  in  the  piece-work  it  has 
been  easier. 

MR.  REED:  I  should  like  to  ask  how  you  proceed.  Sup- 
pose a  man  is  earning  by  the  present  piece-price  $2.50  per 
day.  What  is  the  first  move? 

MR.  GODFREY:  The  first  move  of  any  work  that  is  to  be 
changed  is  the  deliberate  study  of  the  workman's  environ- 
ment. Every  possible  effort  is  made  to  do  away  with  all 
the  nagging  which  the  workman  is  suffering  from.  There  is 
no  one  item  that  takes  more  out  of  the  average  workman 
than  not  having  the  things  where  he  wants  them.  All  such 
things  are,  as  far  as  possible,  smoothed  away.  There  is  a 
preliminary  cleaning  up.  There  is  a  deliberate  study  made 
of  the  conditions  under  which  the  workman  works  and  the 
assumption  of  all  sorts  of  burdens  by  the  management  which 
were  formerly  carried  by  the  workman. 

When  these  changes  have  been  made,  the  laborer  who  has 
seen  you  working  and  doing  these  things  realizes  that  you  are 
doing  the  fair  thing.  When  these  things  have  been  done  you 
will  begin  to  get  the  change  of  mental  attitude,  which  must 
come  before  Scientific  Management  can  exist. 

MR.  TOBIN:  You  give  an  increase  of  wages  to  begin  with? 

MR.  GODFREY:  To  the  experimental  men. 

MR.  TOBIN:  It  is  the  common  practice  in  shoe  manufac- 
turing to  get  the  workmen  to  agree  to  do  work  under  a  changed 
condition,  on  the  promise  of  certain  results,  and  instead  of 
giving  a  premium  or  extra  wages  from  the  beginning,  he  gets 
reduced  wages. 

MR.  GODFREY:  We  are  not  trying  that  at  all;  we  are 
experimenting.  We  tell  the  man  with  whom  we  are  experi- 
menting, "Half  of  what  you  are  going  to  do  may  be  thrown 
aside."  We  don't  try  to  make  him  do  anything  except  to 
have  him  help  us  to  find  out  the  truth.  We  simply  want 
to  know  what  is  the  right  thing.  We  try  things  that  we  know 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  229 

are  going  to  be  wrong,  sometimes  to  see  how  far  they  are 
wrong. 

MR.  TOBIN:  The  company,  the  firm,  is  standing  whatever 
loss  there  may  be? 

MR.  GODFREY:  And  charging  it  to  the  experimental  ex- 
pense. 

MR.  TOBIN:  It  is  the  practice  in  the  shoe  business  to  ask 
the  workmen  to  bear  the  expense.  Is  that  a  fair  statement? 

MR.  DONOVAN:  I  hardly  think  that  is  fair.  They  might, 
in  rare  cases,  feel  that  way. 

MR.  REED:  Most  of  us  have  blower  systems  in  our  fac- 
tories to  take  away  the  dust.  Some  of  them  are  efficient, 
some  are  not.  We  think  the  atmosphere  is  not  right  in  the 
room.  It  is  not  for  our  good,  or  for  the  good  of  the  work- 
men, to  have  it  that  way.  I,  for  one,  think  of  putting  in  a 
new  one.  I  propose  to  do  it  right,  if  I  can  find  a  man  to  do 
it.  The  finishers  are  working  in  a  dusty  atmosphere.  The 
dust  is  not  going  out  in  the  separator.  It  is  flying  all  over. 
They  are  earning  perhaps  $2.50  a  day.  And  now,  suppose  I 
try  to  see  what  I  can  do  to  increase  their  efficiency.  I  say, 
"We  must  have  a  clean  workroom.  We  will  put  in  a  new 
system."  Suppose  we  find  the  system  works  to  perfection. 
The  curtains  are  clean,  instead  of  dusty.  The  whole  outfit  is 
a  success  from  that  point  of  view.  What  is  the  next  step? 
We  have  bettered  the  condition  under  which  that  workman 
does  his  work.  The  next  thing  to  my  mind  is  the  efficiency 
condition  under  which  the  man  can  finish  the  most  bottoms; 
almost  like  the  shoveling  proposition. 

MR.  GODFREY:  There  is  your  question. 

MR.  TOBIN:  That  is  not  the  question  I  mean  at  all. 

MR.  REED:  No,  but  that  is  the  question  that  confronts 
every  manufacturer  in  trying  to  apply  Scientific  Management. 

MR.  TOBIN:  Suppose  a  manufacturer  wants  to  change 
from  day-work  to  piece-work.  He  says  to  the  workmen, 
"I  am  going  to  make  this  change.  You  work  a  month,  and 
I  will  pay  you  so  much.  If  it  is  not  all  right,  I  will  increase 
your  wages." 


230  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  GODFREY:  The  first  thing  that  is  to  be  done  under  those 
circumstances  is  to  get  at  the  task  idea,  to  get  a  definite  record 
of  every  workman's  performance,  to  tabulate  those  perform- 
ances, and  to  have  the  tabulations  go  back  to  the  foremen 
of  all  the  large  departments,  so  that  they  may  examine  them. 

MR.  MERRICK:  Suppose  a  dozen  workmen  are  in  a  line, 
and  they  have  decided  that  $15  a  day  will  be  the  limit.  How 
are  you  going  to  determine  the  fair  basis? 

MR.  GODFREY:  If  you  get  the  records  of  every  depart- 
ment and  every  man  in  that  department,  you  have  a  begin- 
ning. You  have  the  workman's  attitude  towards  the  task; 
what  he  has  been  doing.  There  is  your  basis. 

MR  CUSHMAN:  This  involves  an  account  of  every  indi- 
vidual machine  and  every  operator? 

MR.  GODFREY:  Every  one,  and  those  records  come  in  on 
the  time-cards  of  the  operatives.  This  is  both  day-rate  and 
piece-rate.  Every  record  that  goes  out  has  the  stamp  of  the 
time  and  the  man's  labor.  The  man  fills  up  everything  else 
himself,  signs  it  and  sends  it  in.  Of  course  it  is  inspected. 
Then  all  that  information  is  charted,  and  you  can  see  by 
the  swing  upwards  of  the  graph  where  your  production  goes. 
That  chart  may  be  made  by  a  $io-a-week  clerk.  Don't  put 
your  Scientific  Management  man  to  collecting  record  data. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  In  the  installation  of  this  system  you 
take  one  man  at  a  time? 

MR.  GODFREY:  One  man  at  a  time. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  And  pay  no  attention  to  anything  else 
until  you  get  him  where  he  is  wanted? 

MR.  Godfrey:  Until  he  is  where  he  is  wanted.  There 
is  no  gang-work. 

MR.  REED:  Assuming  that  your  man  in  charge  of  the 
scientific  analysis  arrives  at  a  conclusion  that  a  given  operative 
has  reached  his  maximum  under  certain  conditions,  what  is 
the  next? 

MR.  GODFREY:  You  see  if  your  experimental  man  can 
repeat  it.  Then  you  are  getting  towards  analysis  and  time- 
study. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  231 

MR.  MUNN:  That  is  to  ascertain  your  present  condition. 

MR.  GODFREY:  And  with  that  should  be  some  record  of 
the  new  work.  In  the  machine-shop  all  machines  are  analyzed. 
That  is  one  of  the  first  steps.  Mr.  Sanford  E.  Thompson  of 
Newton  Highlands  knows  more  of  this  than  I.  I  should  be 
glad  to  have  him  tell  you  of  it. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  I  don't  know  whether  the  machinery  that 
I  have  in  mind  would  come,  perhaps,  nearer  the  machinery 
that  you  have  in  the  shop  that  is  not  standardized.  Let  the 
shop  be  on  piece-work  or  on  day-work,  and  following  along 
the  scheme  that  you  have  outlined,  I  would  say  to  a  man  to 
study  that  machine  and  to  determine  as  far  as  he  can  by  his 
observation  the  way  the  machine  is  operated,  and  any  changes 
that  can  be  made  to  make  that  machine  more  effective. 
This,  of  course,  is  assuming  that  routing  is  going  on,  and  that 
material  is  coming  through  to  the  machine  and  going  away 
from  the  machine  in  proper  fashion.  Then  is  the  time  to 
put  on  your  time-study  man  to  get  at  the  actual  task. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  As  a  usual  thing,  Mr.  Thompson,  how 
long  does  it  take  to  work  up  to  this?  How  long  a  campaign 
is  necessary? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  Before  you  begin  to  take  your  task? 

MR.  DONOVAN:  Yes. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  That  depends  entirely  upon  your  present 
condition.  In  doing  lately  some  outside  construction  work, 
we  have  got  on  tasks  within  two  weeks.  We  have  been  doing 
something  on  inside  work  where  we  didn't  begin  tasks  until 
it  had  been  going  about  a  year  and  a  half.  There  you  have 
your  extreme  variation.  It  depends  upon  the  simplicity  of 
the  work  and  upon  how  thoroughly  it  is  organized.  The 
point  is  that,  before  you  can  do  any  task  work  —  get  the  men 
actually  working  on  the  task  —  you  must  have  the  work  in 
such  a  way  that  the  material  all  comes  to  them;  that  you 
know  not  only  what  material  a  man  is  going  to  work  upon, 
but  after  it  goes  away  from  him,  it  must  be  kept  straight. 
In  other  words,  you  must  fix  the  working  of  the  machine  and 
the  work  of  the  man.  Of  course,  in  a  good  many  shops  — 


232  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

in  shoe  shops  for  example  —  I  suppose  the  material  is  pretty 
well  routed  so  you  do  know  the  work  of  your  machines.  It 
might  be  in  some  cases  in  the  machine-shop  that  you  could 
get  down  to  your  task  work  pretty  soon.  Shouldn't  you 
think  so,  Mr.  Godfrey? 

MR.  GODFREY:  I  should  judge  a  good  many  of  your  tasks 
would  come  very  easily. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  I  suppose  you  understand  Mr.  Taylor's 
principle,  brought  out  in  his  different  writings,  —  the  separa- 
tion of  the  operation  into  the  individual  units? 

MR.  DONOVAN:  That  has  all  been  completed  to  a  great 
extent  in  the  factory.  Now  you  are  going  to  subdivide 
that.  Is  that  the  idea? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  Mr.  Godfrey  was  talking  of  the  task  as 
a  whole.  He  did  not  take  up  the  detailed  study  of  the  ele- 
ments concerned  in  an  operation.  I  might  say  as  an  extension 
of  what  Mr.  Godfey  has  said,  that  we  study  the  individual 
operations  on  a  given  machine. 

MR.  MUNN:  The  first  operation  might  be  taking  a  shoe 
from  the  rack,  for  instance,  and  the  next  putting  it  into  the 
machine.  Isn't  that  what  you  mean? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  Yes,  taking  the  shoe  off  the  rack  would 
be  the  same  for  all  kinds  of  shoes;  putting  it  in  the  machine 
would  be  the  same  thing  for  all  kinds  of  shoes,  you  might 
say.  The  sewing  would  vary  in  the  different  sizes,  and  it 
would  vary  with  different  shoes.  I  don't  know  anything 
about  the  shoe  business,  so  I  am  speaking  in  a  general  way. 
If  your  leather  is  thick,  I  suppose  it  might  be  more  work  to 
sew  it.  Then  taking  out  the  shoe  would  be  the  same  for 
each  machine.  It  is  a  very  crude  illustration,  but  the  point 
is  that  when  you  come  down  to  time-study,  you  have  in  any 
general  operation  perhaps  three  or  four  or  half  a  dozen  opera- 
tions that  are  the  same  for  different  classes  of  work,  and  two 
or  three  operations  that  vary.  When  you  have  a  different 
material,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  time  those  few  operations 
that  vary,  and  then  by  a  combination,  you  can  get  the  work 
for  any  material,  or  any  kind  of  work  that  you  have.  That 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  233 

is,  you  can  tabulate  that  and  put  it  on  a  table  so  that  you 
will  have  the  unit. 

MR.  MUNN:  Would  it  be  possible  for  you  to  make  a  chart? 

MR.  CUSHMAN:  A  tabulation  of  these  operations  in  their 
order? 

MR.  MUNN:  A  tabulation  of  the  things  that  would  be 
done  in  observing  an  operation;  that  is,  the  machine,  the 
speed  of  it;  all  the  things  we  have  talked  over  here,  for 
instance,  in  their  regular  order? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  I  was  thinking  whether  you  could  make 
a  definite  tabulation  that  would  be  applicable  to  different 
machines.  Each  one  is  a  study  by  itself,  in  a  way.  For 
instance,  you  must  study  speed  by  itself.  That,  of  course, 
is  one  of  the  things,  but  every  machine  has  so  many  different 
problems  it  is  pretty  hard  to  tell  just  what  to  tackle  first,  and 
how  to  study  it.  But  having  got  your  material,  and  your 
men  so  they  are  working  in  a  uniform  manner,  you  begin 
your  time-studies.  I  was  thinking  what  would  be  the  best 
class  of  work  to  illustrate  time-studies.  Well,  perhaps  you 
might  take,  for  instance,  paper  cutting.  We  have  a  cutting 
machine,  a  table  with  a  cutter  across,  and  the  paper  comes 
to  the  man  on  one  side.  He  lifts  paper  to  machine;  adjusts 
pile  on  machine.  Then  the  mass  is  cut.  Then  he  removes 
his  paper.  That  seems  like  a  very  simple  proposition,  but, 
for  example,  on  a  cutting  machine  the  machine  will  cut  a 
certain  thickness.  It  will  cut,  perhaps,  five  inches  in  thick- 
ness, but  if  the  sheets  are  large  a  man  can't  handle  that 
entire  five  inches.  So  he  must  take,  say  an  inch  of  paper, 
and  put  it  on  the  machine,  and  then  another  inch  of  paper  and 
put  it  on  top,  and  if  there  are  six  inches,  he  will  have  six 
lifts.  I  am  speaking  of  an  actual  case,  an  actual  problem 
that  came  up  to  us.  We  were  supposed  to  put  a  cutting 
machine  on  piece-work,  and  the  people  who  asked  us  to 
do  it  thought  it  could  be  done  in  a  few  days'  time.  Now, 
suppose  that  that  paper  is  48x60.  We  will  have,  as  I  say, 
six  layers  of  one  inch  thickness.  Now,  suppose  you  have 
paper  48X48.  There  he  can  take  an  inch  and  a  quarter. 


234  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Suppose  you  have  paper  that  is  glazed;  you  can't  take  an 
inch,  because  it,  works  differently;  you  can  only  take  three- 
quarters  of  an  inch  at  the  same  size.  There  you  have  a  lot  of 
variables  to  study.  When  you  come  to  take  off  the  paper,  you 
take  a  different  amount.  The  man  can  handle  it  more  easily, 
and  does  not  take  the  same  number  of  lifts.  When  you  come 
to  this  one  machine,  you  have  to  study  the  quality  of  the  paper, 
the  amount  a  man  can  lift,  the  thickness  of  the  lift  as  governed 
by  the  quality  of  the  paper,  and  the  total  maximum  cut  that 
the  machine  can  make,  which  sometimes  varies  with  the  quality 
of  the  paper,  too.  In  other  words,  some  kinds  of  paper  you  can 
cut  six  inches;  other  kinds  work  differently  under  the  knife,  so 
you  can  cut  only  five  inches.  There  you  have  your  variables, 
and  having  studied  those  out,  the  paper,  as  it  comes  to  the 
machine,  has  slips  of  paper  in  it  to  tell  how  much  a  man  should 
take  for  a  cut.  It  is  divided  up  and  is  counted  off  before 
it  comes.  It  has  to  be  counted  anyway.  They  simply  put 
in  a  paper  in  the  right  place,  so  that  instead  of  his  taking,  as 
usual,  four  inches  in  one  cut  and  six  inches  in  another  cut,  he 
takes  six  inches  in  every  cut;  that  is,  he  puts  six  lifts  of 
paper  on  each  time,  instead  of  putting  four  lifts  some  times 
and  six  others. 

MR.  MERRICK:  Why  couldn't  that  paper  come  to  the 
machine  on  an  adjustable  bench,  to  cut  the  proper  thickness, 
and  to  slide  it  and  lift  it;  go  to  the  cutter  on  a  rack  that  would 
lift  four  or  six? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  It  might,  with  some  kinds  of  paper,  but 
where  you  have  large  paper  — 

MR.  MERRICK:  Suppose  the  rack  were  so  adjusted  that 
you  could  put  on  a  three-foot  pile  of  paper,  and  the  paper 
was  three  feet  below  the  cutting-knife. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  That  is  just  one  of  those  things  that  you 
want  to  study  out,  to  see  if  you  can  make  those  changes. 

MR.  MERRICK:  We  wouldn't  let  him  lift  the  paper. 

MR.  THOMPSON  :  One  point,  just  to  illustrate  the  difference 
in  your  time-studies.  Suppose  we  have  a  60X48  and  another 
48X48.  When  you  come  to  your  time-study,  as  a  general 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  235 

proposition,  you  will  find  that  a  man  can  lift  one-fifth  more 
of  48X48,  so  that  your  time,  which  is  based  on  pounds  lifted, 
can  be  obtained  for  any  number  of  pounds  of  paper.  I  don't 
know  whether  I  make  that  clear.  Suppose  we  take  time- 
studies  on  lifting  one  inch  of  60X48.  Then  he  would  lift 
one-fifth  more  of  48X48.  In  other  words,  the  size  is  smaller, 
therefore  he  could  lift  a  greater  thickness  in  the  same  time. 
That  would  have  to  be  studied  out  by  taking  occasional  times; 
for  instance,  taking  the  time  on  72X60,  and  another  time  on 
48X48,  and  another  time  on  24X24,  and  plotting  them,  so 
as  to  give  the  curve.  In  that  way,  you  get  the  time  per 
lift  for  any  size  paper.  It  is  probable  that  it  would  work  out 
the  same  per  pound.  My  point  that  I  want  to  emphasize 
is  just  this,  that  a  great  many  of  these  items  are  the  same  in 
your  different  operations. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  If  you  eliminate  the  other  operations, 
that  man  can  keep  on  cutting  more  steadily,  if  the  paper 
is  fed  to  him. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  Yes. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  So  that  in  subdividing  the  job  into  four 
sections,  when  the  machine  was  being  used,  say,  only  40  per 
cent  of  the  time,  he  is  enabled  to  use  it  80  per  cent  to  85 
per  cent  of  the  time  if  the  paper  is  fed  to  him,  taken  away, 
etc.  That  is,  a  skilled  laborer  would  double  his  work,  and 
the  unskilled  would  bring  it  to  him.  Is  that  the  scheme? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  Yes. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  When  you  have  nine  skilled  men  and  they 
are  replaced  by  unskilled  men,  what  becomes  of  the  nine  men 
who  were  earning  skilled  men's  wages?  Say  that  cutter  was 
earning  $20  a  week,  and  he  was  only  working,  actually,  40 
per  cent  of  the  time.  Now,  if  he  cuts  80  per  cent  or  85  per 
cent  of  the  time,  he  is  doing  the  work  of  two,  or  two  and  a 
quarter,  cutters.  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  those  you 
have  eliminated? 

MR.  THOMPSON  :  Then  you  come  to  the  same  problem  that 
Mr.  Godfrey  has  been  discussing  tonight.  You  put  them  on 
other  work. 


236  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  DONOVAN:   If  you  are  employing  1,000  hands,  say? 

MR.  SLAYTON:  Mr.  Taylor's  lecture  last  night  answered 
that  question,  I  think  quite  thoroughly;  that  when  the 
cotton  machinery  was  put  in  the  mills  in  Manchester,  England, 
for  the  first  time,  the  people  who  had  been  doing  the  work  by 
hand  thought  their  life  job  was  taken  away,  and  they  did  just 
what  you  or  I  would  do.  They  broke  into  the  shop  and 
destroyed  the  machinery.  But  the  cotton  machinery  stayed, 
and  now  today  it  has  become  so  cheap  that  the  common 
laborer  wears  a  cotton  shirt.  In  those  days,  he  could  not  wear 
a  cotton  shirt.  It  has  always  proved  that  where  labor-saving 
machinery  has  been  put  in,  it  has  increased  the  production 
capacity,  so  there  were  more  laborers  used.  Another  thing, 
by  materially  cheapening  the  cost  of  a  manufactured  article, 
it  widens  the  market. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  Increases  the  demand  for  it. 

MR.  GODFREY:  The  trouble  has  never  been  in  throwing 
the  skilled  laborer  out  of  employment;  it  has  been  in  getting 
him  to  do  the  job.  It  has  actually  acted  the  other  way. 
Your  skilled  men  are  hard  to  get. 

MR.  MERRICK:  Isn't  this  the  fact,  that  in  the  case  Mr. 
Donovan  cites,  the  paper  cutters  are  skilled  in  that  one  job, 
and  the  manufacturer  hasn't  any  room  for  them  anywhere 
else  in  his  factory  except  cutting  paper,  and  he  reduces  his 
paper  cutters  say  from  twenty  to  twelve  on  account  of 
more  efficient  work?  Now,  why  don't  we  admit  right  away 
that  those  eight  men  have  to  find  another  job?  Why  don't 
we  admit  that  those  men  must  temporarily  suffer? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  I  was  talking,  in  the  factory  where  Mr. 
Gantt  has  been,  with  a  mechanical  engineer  who  was  con- 
nected with  the  factory;  the  talk  had  nothing  to  do  with 
Scientific  Management  in  any  way.  He  was  talking  about 
his  output  from  year  to  year.  He  said  the  curve  ran  up  in 
quite  a  sharp  line  the  last  two  years.  It  has  been  going  up 
very  sharply.  I  said,  "What  have  you  done?  Have  you 
increased  your  building  and  your  force?"  "No,"  he  said. 
"We  have  just  the  same  force  that  we  had  before,  and  just 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  237 

the  same  building,  but  we  are  turning  out  double  the  work 
we  did  before." 

MR.  DONOVAN:  Suppose  that  by  increasing  your  efficiency 
you  can  produce  the  same  number  of  shoes  in  a  third  shorter 
time,  and  that  the  natural  growth  of  the  business  is  not  enough 
to  allow  you  to  replenish  the  orders.  What  are  you  going  to 
do  then  for  the  shortage? 

MR.  GODFREY:  Your  sales  curves  are  going  to  determine 
that  to  a  large  degree,  because,  while  you  are  getting  data 
for  everything  else,  your  sales  department  must  get  busy  and 
help  along. 

As  regards  the  eight  men  mentioned,  the  old  idea  would 
be:  " Those  eight  men  are  no  good.  We  are  sorry,  but  there 
is  nothing  more  for  you.  Get  out."  I  can't  say  that  all  those 
eight  men  would  be  employed,  but  there  would  be  the  hardest 
kind  of  a  try  to  find  what  those  eight  men  could  do.  I 
believe  you  would  find  every  man  satisfied  with  his  new  job. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  We  are  not  letting  down  on  our  sales 
now,  we  are  selling  every  pair  we  can. 

MR.  SLAYTON:  All  those  eight  men  are  not  going  to  be 
eliminated,  because  you  are  going  to  have  more  supervision. 

MR.  GODFREY:  With  Scientific  Management  there  are  a 
lot  of  positions  for  the  skilled  men.  One  of  the  men  will  be 
an  instructor,  others  you  take  into  the  planning  room  to  do 
routing.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  do  not  know  personally  of 
any  case  where  work  has  not  been  found  for  every  man. 
Somebody  will  say,  "That  man  is  too  swift;  he  ought  to  be 
doing  something  else."  There  is  an  opening  in  another  posi- 
tion, which  is  at  least  as  good  as  the  one  he  leaves.  It  is 
adjusting  the  man  to  the  job,  where  in  the  other  case  it  was 
a  sifting  out  and  a  survival  of  the  fittest. 

MR.  DONOVAN:  If  you  are  using  all  these  men,  and  in 
addition  several  more,  whom  you  will  hire  for  minor  positions, 
why  isn't  your  production  costing  you  more  than  it  was 
when  you  started  in? 

MR.  GODFREY:  Because  your  production  is  greatly  in- 
creased. A  very  large  proportion  of  your  production  cost 


238  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

is  the  overhead  expense.  By  every  additional  pair  of  shoes 
you  put  out,  you  are  reducing  your  overhead  expense  per  pair. 

In  the  second  place,  in  every  factory  there  is  a  certain 
natural  shrinkage,  which  goes  from  10  per  cent  to  15  per 
cent,  and  the  changes  of  men  have  come  almost  entirely 
from  that  floating  population.  The  best  thing  we  can  do 
is  to  speak  from  experience.  Don't  you  imagine  you  lose 
10  per  cent  of  your  operatives  in  a  year? 

MR.  DONOVAN:  Oh,  yes.  I  think  so.  I  think  that  is 
conservative. 

MR.  GODFREY:  That  10  per  cent  which  drifts  is  not  in 
the  place  it  is  needed.  We  can  fairly  well  leave  them  out 
of  the  question.  As  regards  the  rest  let  me  give  you  an 
illustration  of  what  happened  a  while  ago.  A  mill  was  being 
organized  under  Scientific  Management,  and  in  a  certain  room 
there  were  about  forty  girls  who  were  put  out  of  employment 
in  reorganizing  that  room.  The  Woman's  Club  of  the  town, 
hearing  that  forty  girls  had  been  dropped,  became  indignant, 
and  as  the  engineer  in  charge  was  in  town,  they  sent  a 
delegation  of  five  ladies  to  him.  He  listened,  and  said, 
"This  is  very  sad.  If  you  will  go  and  get  the  names  of  the 
girls  who  have  been  put  out  of  employment,  and  just  bring 
them  to  me,  I  will  see  what  I  can  do."  The  engineer  saw 
nothing  of  these  ladies  for  some  time,  but  later  he  saw  three 
of  them  at  a  reception  and  asked  them  what  was  the  matter. 
The  delegation  was  forced  to  confess  that  the  girls  had  all 
found  jobs,  in  the  same  plant  or  in  other  places. 

MR.  LUITWIELER:  I  think  we  are  very  much  indebted, 
both  to  Mr.  Godfrey  and  to  Mr.  Thompson.  We  have  worked 
about  twelve  hours  today,  and  I  don't  know  what  Mr.  Tobin 
will  fine  us. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  239 


IV.  PRINTING  AND  PUBLISHING 

LEADER,  MORRIS   LLEWELLYN   COOKE 

Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 

MR.  GRAY  (Secretary  of  the  Tuck  School):  In  the  tem- 
porary absence  of  Mr.  Cooke,  we  have  asked  Mr.  Edwin  S. 
Browne,  of  the  Curtis  Publishing  Co.,  Philadelphia,  to  lead 
the  meeting. 

MR.  BROWNE:  I  am  sorry  that  Mr.  Cooke  is  not  here. 
He  seems  to  be  in  demand  at  several  discussions  at  the  same 
time.  The  function  I  am  about  to  perform  seems  to  me 
decidedly  like  that  we  heard  about  yesterday  afternoon,  of 
the  fireman  on  the  oil-burning  locomotive  on  the  Santa  Fe 
road  who  sits  with  his  thumb  and  finger  at  the  flow  of  the 
oil,  and  you  others  will  be  the  mechanism.  At  the  Curtis 
Publishing  Company  the  work  of  establishing  Scientific 
Management  is  in  the  very  early  stages,  so  I  scarcely  feel 
qualified  to  give  our  experience  as  of  value  for  application 
in  another  place.  Discussion  and  exchange  of  views  on  prob- 
lems that  are  current  rather  than  finished,  seem  to  me  some- 
times more  helpful  than  a  lot  of  detail  of  what  has  been  done 
by  some  one  who  has  gotten  by  the  difficult  period  and,  con- 
sequently, looks  upon  some  of  his  difficulties  through  the 
kind  of  lens  that  diminishes  things  of  the  past. 

No  one  connected  with  the  printing  business  can  fail  to 
realize  the  complex  nature  of  the  problems  of  management. 
There  are  so  many  phases  in  the  business  itself;  the  kind  of 
product,  unionized  labor,  the  contrast  between  the  miscel- 
laneous and  the  one-product  shop;  we  have  almost  as  many 
problems  as  you  find  in  the  various  kinds  of  machine  manu- 
facture. 

There  have  been  a  number  of  things  that  have  appealed 
to  me.  Some  have  been  very  distinctly  emphasized  by  what 
has  been  said  at  this  conference.  Mr.  Kendall  suggested 
this  afternoon  a  consideration  of  the  psychological  elements. 


240  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

The  different  kinds  of  labor,  for  instance,  appeal  to  me  as  a 
point  in  which  methods  can  be  elaborated  beyond  what  I 
believe  they  have  been.  It  is  in  connections  of  that  sort  that 
very  possibly  lies  a  large  field  for  combination  with  academic 
investigation  along  the  same  line.  There  is  so  much  of  that 
sort  of  thing  which  is  ready  for  application  to  real  industrial 
problems.  Of  course,  in  the  printing  and  publishing  business 
we  have  so  many  operations  in  finishing,  which  depart  so  far 
from  the  orthodox  elements  of  the  printing  line,  that  there 
comes  a  wider  and  wider  scope  for  the  development  of  the 
management  which  covers  the  complexities  as  well  as  the 
simpler  elements  of  the  printing  itself. 

MR.  VAWTER:  Do  you  know  of  many  plants  which  have 
adopted  Scientific  Management? 

MR.  BROWNE:  I  should  hesitate  to  say  what  the  number 
is.  They  are  very  few.  That  is  a  question  I  should  like  to 
have  Mr.  Cooke  answer  directly. 

MR.  VAWTER:  Do  you  know  whether  any  which  have 
adopted  it  are  doing  a  miscellaneous  business? 

MR.  BROWNE  :  The  Forbes  Lithograph  Company  of  Boston 
is  establishing  the  Taylor  system  in  its  entirety.  Of  course, 
it  is  in  the  preliminary  stages,  those  stages  which  represent 
the  most  difficult  operations  of  the  work.  Mr.  Cooke  him- 
self is  engineering  the  work  there.  You  can  judge  very 
readily  how  far  the  work  has  been  extended  at  the  Plimpton 
Press  by  what  Mr.  Kendall  said  this  afternoon. 

MR.  VAWTER:  What  is  the  character  of  the  work  pro- 
duced there? 

MR.  BROWNE:  Printing  and  publishing,  books  almost 
entirely.  The  Forbes  Lithograph  Co.  does  a  large  general 
printing  business.  Is  Mr.  Rowe  of  the  Plimpton  Press  here? 
If  so,  we  would  like  to  hear  from  him. 

MR.  ROWE:  Our  work  is  composition,  printing  and  bind- 
ing, and  our  first  step  along  the  line  of  Scientific  Management 
was  in  connection  with  the  binding.     Two  or  three  years  - 
before  this  movement  started,  we  had  reached  the  second 
type  of  management  which  Mr.  Kendall  described  this  after- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  241 

noon,  and  some  of  us  thought  that  we  were  doing  pretty 
well  at  that  point,  but  the  introduction  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment is  producing  much  improvement.  Mr.  Kendall  has 
suggested  something  of  what  it  is  capable  of  doing  in  the 
different  departments. 

MR.  BROWNE:  Have  you  the  bonus  system  established? 
You  have  it  in  the  bindery? 

MR.  ROWE:  To  some  extent. 

MR.  BROWNE:  Have  you  made  any  attempt  to  establish 
the  bonus  system  in  the  press-work  department? 

MR.  ROWE:  No,  not  in  the  press-work  department. 

MR.  COOKE:  A  conference  with  Governor  Bass  kept  me 
from  getting  here  in  time  for  the  opening  of  this  meeting,  and 
I  want  to  apologize  to  you  all  for  not  getting  here  on  time. 

MR.  BROWNE:  I  have  announced  to  the  gentlemen  here 
that  you  had  contemplated  talking  to  them,  and  as  a  penalty 
for  your  being  late,  we  expect  to  hear  quite  at  length  from 
you. 

MR.  COOKE:  It  is  pretty  late,  and  I  had  not  thought  to 
say  very  much,  but  there  are  a  few  things  I  should  like  to  say 
which  will  take  about  five  minutes;  then  we  will  proceed  with 
the  informal  discussion. 

It  seems  to  me  that  in  the  discussion  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment in  the  printing  industry  you  must  consider  the  nature 
of  the  industry  as  compared  with  others.  The  introduction 
is  going  to  come,  in  my  opinion,  very  slowly,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  census  returns  show  that  the  number  of  estab- 
lishments is  increasing  rather  than  diminishing,  and  that  the 
average  size  of  the  product  of  the  printing  plants  between 
the  years  1900  and  1905  went  down  rather  than  up.  That 
means  that  the  process  of  simplification  going  on  in  other 
industries  is  probably  not  present  in  the  printing  industry 
to  the  same  extent.  Whether  that  will  change  as  years  pass 
we  cannot  tell. 

Take  the  electric  light  industry,  where  the  gathering  of 
control  into  a  very  few  hands  has  given  rise  to  the  National 
Electric  Light  Association  with  their  laboratories  and  experi- 


242  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

mental  work,  so  that  the  gain  of  one  plant  is  almost  immedi- 
ately made  the  gain  of  another.  If  a  man  wants  to  get  a 
lamp  tested,  he  sends  it  to  this  laboratory.  It  is  tested  there 
and  the  other  companies  get  the  result  of  that  examination 
very  promptly.  That  centralized  control  in  the  printing 
industry  is  absolutely  lacking,  and  is  something  which  must 
be  considered  in  connection  with  the  question  how  Scientific 
Management  can  be  applied  to  it. 

Another  point  is  the  natural  conservatism  of  the  printers. 
I  suppose  that  comes  from  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many 
small,  isolated  plants.  We  are  more  like  farmers.  We 
haven't  the  spirit  of  cooperation  to  the  extent  that  a  good 
many  other  industries  have.  You  can  see  that  in  the  slow- 
ness with  which  the  cost  idea  has  taken  hold.  I  have  a  book, 
which  I  prize,  that  I  bought  in  '89  for  $i  of  Isaac  Blanchard 
in  New  York.  It  is  called  Blanchard* s  Complete  Cost 
System.  I  bought  this  twenty-two  years  ago,  and  the 
system  outlined  in  that  book  is  almost  the  same  as  is  now 
being  put  out  by  the  National  Cost  Congress.  Of  course 
it  has  been  revised,  and  many  obvious  things  cut  out;  but 
from  the  standpoint  of  philosophy,  it  is  the  same  thing. 
Mr.  Kendall  has  eight  men  in  the  country  now  trying  to 
introduce  a  cost  system  born  twenty- two  years  ago. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  branch  of  the  industry  which  is  not 
absolutely  dominated  by  what  mathematicians  call  "trial 
and  error."  Perhaps  the  best  example  of  it  is  the  title-page. 
For  instance,  a  man  goes  to  the  case  when  he  is  given  his  copy 
and  picks  out  a  letter  in  some  face  or  other,  sees  whether  it 
will  go  in  the  line,  or  sees  if  it  looks  right  when  it  is  in  the  line. 
If  not,  he  distributes  it  and  starts  all  over  again.  Now,  with 
Scientific  Management  that  would  all  be  done  in  the  proper 
way.  He  would  have  absolute  instructions  as  to  what  to 
do,  and  when  he  put  3  or  333  characters  together  they 
would  fit.  We  can't  see  how  it  can  be  done,  but  it  will  be 
done,  because  more  difficult  problems  have  been  solved  in 
other  lines.  That  same  thing  applies  to  every  part  of  the 
work  in  which  we  are  interested. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  243 

The  greatest  single  difficulty  I  know  of  is  the  foreman. 
The  foremen  in  the  industries  connected  with  the  printing 
business  are  the  most  competent  I  come  in  contact  with  in 
my  industrial  practice,  and  we  demand  more  of  them  than  is 
demanded  of  foremen  in  any  other  lines.  I  think  the  fore- 
man of  the  composing  room  is  the  most  abused  of  them  all. 
We  have  trained  him  to  expect  to  perform  so  many  more 
functions  than  it  is  possible  for  him  to  perform,  that  I  think 
he  is  the  most  difficult  problem  for  the  average  man  in  the 
printing  business  to  face. 

We  are  going  to  make  the  foreman,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a 
bigger  man  than  he  ever  has  been.  But  as  long  as  he  does 
not  see  it  that  way  he  does  make  a  difficult  problem.  Unless 
you  have  had  the  experience  that  goes  with  the  practice  of 
industrial  engineering,  and  know  how  gradually  to  take  away 
from  the  foreman  some  of  the  things  he  has  been  doing,  and 
in  this  way  give  him  more  time  to  perform  the  functions  that 
need  his  personal  attention;  unless  that  can  be  done  for  a 
period  of  years,  you  will  find  at  the  end  of  two  or  three  months, 
or  two  or  three  years,  that  that  foreman  mentally  is  the  same 
individual  you  started  with;  and  without  his  cooperation, 
without  his  willingness  to  have  some  of  his  functions  taken 
away  in  order  that  he  may  devote  more  time  to  the  things 
that  are  left,  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  impossible. 

I  don't  think  I  am  exaggerating  when  I  say  that  the  average 
superintendent  of  a  plant,  the  average  foreman  of  a  depart- 
ment, ought  to  devote  only  10  per  cent  of  his  time  to  the 
things  he  does  now;  in  other  words,  he  floats  in  about  ten 
times  as  much  work  as  he  can  really  do. 

In  my  opinion  we  are  now  engaged  in  a  work  that  cannot 
be  stopped.  It  has  gone  beyond  the  point  where  it  could  be 
stopped.  Results  in  printing  establishments  have  been  too 
notable  and  too  successful  to  allow  the  thing  to  stop. 

MR.  SMITH:  What  success  have  you  had  in  the  cylinder 
press-room  problem? 

MR.  COOKE:  The  press-room  problem  is  the  big  problem 
of  the  industry,  and  we  haven't  really  touched  it.  I  will  not 


244  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

say  that  we  haven't  made  any  impression  upon  it.  I  have 
never  been  afraid  of  the  press  problem  as  some  people  are. 
I  have  felt  that  it  is  the  big,  difficult  problem  in  the  sense 
that  it  is  a  long  problem,  and  is  going  to  involve  most 
radical  changes  in  machinery  .and  methods.  I  was  told  two 
years  ago  by  a  man  who,  I  think,  is  perhaps  the  best  designer 
of  machinery  in  the  country,  that  the  printing-press  is  built 
on  fundamentally  wrong  lines.  I  have  some  idea  of  what  he 
meant  by  that.  We  haven't  got  far  enough  into  it  to  know 
that  this  is  true,  but  I  believe  the  cylinder  printing-press  is 
going  to  be  materially  altered  before  we  get  much  farther 
along. 

In  the  bindery,  in  what  we  call  finishing,  the  operations 
are  all  right  on  the  table.  They  are  comparatively  simple; 
the  number  of  conditions  that  have  to  be  controlled  are 
limited  compared  with  those  in  the  operations  of  the  cylinder 
press. 

I  think  the  setting  of  type  by  the  monotype  and  linotype 
machines  has  brought  about  a  revolution,  and  it  will  not  be 
long  before  all  hand  composition  disappears.  I  would  not 
advise  any  time-study  on  setting  type  by  hand;  I  should 
absolutely  eliminate  that,  because  when  we  get  some  of  the 
other  things  out  of  the  way,  that  will  not  be  a  problem. 

In  the  setting  of  type  I  personally  have  done  some  work, 
and  have  had  a  man  associated  with  me  on  it,  trying  to  deter- 
mine the  character  of  the  problems  which  must  be  solved. 
If  we  take  the  length  of  a  page,  we  know  by  setting  certain 
type  together — eight,  ten  or  twelve-point,  any  one  of  them  — 
and  adding  the  type,  the  space  it  will  occupy.  For  example, 
if  you  set  the  words  "Tuck  School  of  Administration  and 
Finance"  in  thirteen-point  Scotch  we  know  how  long  a  space 
it  is  going  to  occupy.  This  is  an  easy  thing,  —  we  have  got 
to  the  point  where  we  can  tell  within  3  per  cent  or  4  per  cent. 
Probably  if  you  could  give  an  advertising  agency  tables  by 
which  they  could  lay  out  their  copy,  they  could  determine 
before  it  is  sent  to  the  printer  whether  it  could  be  set  in  one 
face  of  type  or  another;  making  it  unnecessary  to  tear  it  out 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  245 

four,  five  or  six  times  as  is  usually  done.  That  would  simplify 
matters  a  good  deal,  particularly  the  advertising  matter.  It 
is  only  a  question  of  time,  with  such  men  as  Bancroft  working 
on  it,  before  practically  all  that  type  will  be  set  by  machine. 
I  do  not  mean  that  it  is  coming  tomorrow.  I  understand  the 
monotype  machine  can  set  thirty-six-point  type. 

MR.  FUILDER:  Do  you  not  think  the  part  of  Scientific 
Management  which  applies  to  the  management  end  most 
directly  is  just  as  easy  to  apply  to  a  printing  establishment 
as  anywhere? 

I  am  a  publisher,  a  printer.  Now  take  an  example.  We 
have  a  book  to  be  set  up  in  ten-point  type  leaded  one  and 
one-half;  we  give  it  to  the  printer  with  those  instructions; 
and  the  job  comes  back  to  us  leaded  two.  We  have  another 
job  and  mark  it  to  be  set  up  in  nine-point  type;  and  it  comes 
back  eight-point,  and  the  office  is  out  the  job.  Now  what 
are  we  going  to  do  about  that?  It  seems  to  me  Scientific 
Management  can  get  right  on  the  job  without  waiting  fifteen 
years. 

MR.  COOKE:  I  was  in  an  office  in  Philadelphia  one  day, 
and  the  proprietor  was  personally  answering  the  telephone 
calls  when  some  jobs  were  ready  to  be  delivered.  I  tried  to 
argue  with  him  that  that  was  not  the  highest  function  he 
could  perform.  He  said  he  was  not  able  to  throw  off  all 
these  things  that  he  should.  I  told  him  each  individual  ought 
to  use  his  highest  faculties  to  the  best  advantage.  When  a 
proprietor  spends  his  time  answering  the  telephone  and  run- 
ning out  into  another  room  to  see  if  a  job  is  finished  or  not,  I 
think  there  is  a  chance  for  big  improvement. 

MR.  BROWNE:  I  was  talking  the  other  day  with  a  man  in 
a  large  printing  plant  (not  in  Philadelphia)  who  is  a  big  man, 
a  man  who  has  gone  through  the  routine  of  practical  training 
and  is  looked  upon  as  having  a  lot  of  common  sense;  he  holds 
a  big  position.  His  statement  to  me  was,  "I  am  not  big 
enough  for  my  job;  I  am  constantly  doing  things  I  have  no 
business  to  do,  but  I  can't  seem  to  get  away  from  doing  them." 
This  man  is  a  thorough  believer  in  routing,  considers  it  as 


246  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

absolutely  the  first  essential  to  large  printing  orders,  and  yet 
he  doesn't  see  his  way  to  getting  hold  of  the  right  applica- 
tion; even  after  he  has  worked  it  out  in  theory. 

MR.  COOKE:  It  would  be  instructive  to  have  each  printer 
here  in  the  room  state  what  seems  to  him  the  principal  handi- 
cap in  applying  these  methods  in  his  own  shop? 

MR.  HOWE  :  In  the  printing  office  we  have  a  general  work- 
ing system.  We  use  the  postal  card  system  for  our  orders. 
Our  customers  insist  on  proofs,  and  we  cannot  tell  when 
proofs  are  coming  back  because  they  never  come  back  when 
they  are  promised.  That  makes  it  necessary  for  the  foreman 
to  plan  the  work  over  and  over  again  during  the  day.  The 
work  of  our  office  is  very  different  from  the  Norwood  Press, 
where  they  start  in  manufacturing  a  book  and  the  work  goes 
to  one  room  after  another.  Scientific  Management  in  our 
office  would  have  to  begin  with  the  composing  room.  Some- 
body would  have  to  take  the  copy  and  write  on  the  margin 
all  the  different  details,  and  then  we  would  have  to  increase 
the  number  of  foremen,  or  at  least  teachers,  so  as  to  put  less 
responsibility  on  the  compositor. 

MR.  COOKE:  You  would  have  to  come  to  making  your 
copy  instruction  card  absolutely  complete.  In  regard  to 
the  proof  coming  back  from  customers,  that,  of  course,  is  a 
very  serious  thing;  but  I  think  it  is  due  in  part  to  the  attitude 
that  "it  is  up  to  somebody  else."  We  must  do  it  ourselves 
and  keep  punching  the  customers. 

A  man  told  me  that  in  his  establishment  in  Philadelphia 
they  found  so  much  difficulty  in  getting  certain  firms  to  send 
in  their  work  when  they  said  they  would,  that  he  told  them, 
"When  you  make  a  promise  see  that  you  live  up  to  it."  They 
have  tried  the  experiment  of  having  a  high-priced  man  go  to 
the  telephone  and  call  up  a  concern  the  day  its  work  was 
promised,  and  say,  "Yesterday  you  said  such  and  such  a  thing 
would  be  delivered  Thursday,  the  thirteenth.  Is  that  promise 
still  good?"  They  would  say  "Yes"  and  he  would  say  "All 
right."  The  next  day  he  would  do  the  same  thing.  As  a 
result  they  eliminated  a  good  deal  of  delay.  I  believe  we 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  247 

shall  see  the  time  when,  as  we  send  out  proofs  we  shall  get  a 
promise  from  the  customer  when  he  is  going  to  send  them  back, 
and  by  means  of  the  tickler  we  shall  be  able  to  follow  him 
up.  But  this  idea  of  outstanding  proofs  coming  in  tomorrow 
morning  will  not  work,  and  I  don't  know  how  Scientific 
Management  will  bring  it  about.  I  think  I  should  take  my 
worst  customers,  and  my  most  particular  customers,  and  try 
to  get  into  the  habit  of  reminding  them  periodically. 

MR.  HOWE:  What  if  the  customers  live  out  of  town? 

MR.  COOKE:  I  was  manager  in  a  publishing  house  and 
I  had  great  respect  for  those  printers  who  knew  I  was  in 
arrears.  Isn't  that  a  psychological  fact? 

Mr.  SMITH:  I  am  not  able  to  judge  what  is  the  best  thing 
to  be  done  in  the  press-room. 

MR.  COOKE:  You  mean  trying  to  work  out  some  scheme 
to  better  conditions?  I  think  Mr.  Howe's  remarks  very 
suggestive.  What  would  you  call  the  most  difficult  thing 
in  the  press-room  problem  to  solve?  There  is  no  man  in  any 
better  position  to  know  than  you. 

MR.  SMITH:  I  don't  know  that  I  can  say.  We  have  what 
is  called  systematic  management.  We  aim  to  have  the  jobs 
very  closely  watched.  We  have  a  man  who  plans  the  work 
ahead  so  that  there  is  no  delay  on  the  press,  and  no  delay  on 
the  paper.  I  have  no  doubt  that  under  Scientific  Management, 
by  a  close  study  of  the  subject,  there  would  be  some  gains 
in  some  ways.  What  those  are,  I  don't  know,  as  I  haven't 
made  a  study  of  the  subject.  Our  particular  business  is  press- 
work.  We  have  a  large  press-room.  The  economies  gained  in 
one  room,  multiplied  by  fifty  would  amount  to  considerable. 
I  do  not  doubt  but  that  there  are  some  small  savings  we  could 
gain,  and  we  hope  to  some  time,  although  I  feel  we  have  a 
good  system  today. 

MR.  COOKE:  I  have  been  in  your  press-room  and  I  know 
you  have  a  fine  system. 

MR.  HOWE:  I  understand  there  are  some  places  where 
they  use  a  cut  overlay  of  paper  and  after  taking  an  impression, 
they  put  it  in  a  bath  of  acid.  They  claim  that  they  cut  down 


248  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

the  time  considerably.  A  traveling  man  told  me  this  week 
that  in  one  office  in  Hartford  they  had  increased  their  press 
capacity  30  per  cent  overlay  cut  out.  Now  there  is  no  man 
allowed  to  cut  so  as  to  increase  the  product  30  per  cent,  I 
believe. 

MR.  BROWNE:  On  flat  work  they  use  the  straight  cut 
overlay  —  they  do  use  an  overlay  on  the  flat  work  —  it  is 
not  the  chalk  lay. 

MR.  HOWE:  I  understand  from  our  foreman  that  Berwick 
&  Smith  use  it  to  some  extent. 

MR.  BROWNE:  The  thing,  to  one  without  a  technical 
knowledge  of  it,  may  look  hi  error.  As  an  indication  of  what 
must  come  in  printing  is  the  development  of  the  Mackay 
process  used  at  the  Curtis  Publishing  Company.  The  plate 
itself  is  made  perfectly  true  so  the  question  of  " make-ready" 
is  practically  eliminated.  As  regards  the  process  itself,  it 
is  not  perfect  yet,  but  does  very  good  work.  I  have  thought 
for  a  long  time  that  something  of  that  sort,  perhaps  part  of 
the  revolution  of  the  printing-press,  is  a  machine  that  will  be 
of  tremendous  help,  but  will  mean  a  tremendous  change. 

MR.  COOKE  :  The  thing  always  offended  me,  —  that  when 
you  put  your  type  form  on  a  plain  surface,  true  it  up  to  the 
foot  of  the  type  and  put  it  on  the  press,  you  are  not  sure  then 
of  its  being  true.  I  should  like  to  hear  from  Mr.  Rowe  who 
has  had  much  experience  in  coming  in  contact  with  the  out- 
side printing  shops,  and  who  has  obtained  harmony  between 
the  outside  and  inside  printing  establishments.  I  should 
like  to  have  him  tell  us,  as  he  sees  it,  the  ultimate  future  of 
Scientific  Management. 

MR.  ROWE:  In  my  particular  line  of  work  of  dealing 
with  customers  and  the  sales  department  on  the  one 
hand,  and  with  the  manufacturing  in  the  bindery  on  the 
other,  I  can  see  a  vast  advantage  gained  through  Scientific 
Management.  Through  the  functionalizing  of  work  of  this 
character,  the  strain  on  the  individual  is  relieved  and  the 
efficiency  increases.  The  ultimate  result  can  be  nothing 
but  enormously  increased  efficiency. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  249 

I  begin  to  see  where  there  is  coming  to  me  personally  a 
relief  from  the  strain  caused  by  the  overload  of  trying  to 
perform  too  many  functions. 

The  responsibility,  however,  on  any  one  is  correspond- 
ingly increased  when  he  performs  only  one  or  a  very  few 
functions. 

In  answer  to  the  question,  "Does  a  person  who  works  under 
Scientific  Management  become  a  machine? "  I  will  say,  I 
think  he  does  in  so  far  as  he  does  work  with  the  machine-like 
precision  which  increases  his  efficiency,  so  that  he  becomes  a 
consistent  part  of  the  whole  organization  instead  of  a  jumble 
of  inefficient  wheels  working  independently.  That  is  the 
effect  of  Scientific  Management,  as  far  as  it  has  been  applied 
to  my  own  work. 

MR.  BROWNE:  I  think,  of  course,  that  with  the  placing  of 
Scientific  Management  you  cannot  make  demands  on  any- 
body of  things  he  cannot  do. 

MR.  ROWE  :  In  reference  to  that  man  in  Philadelphia  who 
said  he  could  not  throw  off  duties,  it  might  be  a  good  thing 
to  have  somebody  sit  down  beside  him,  study  his  methods 
and  tell  him  tactfully  some  of  the  things  he  needs  to  do.  It 
is  really  one  of  the  hardest  things  for  most  of  us  to  do,  to  take 
criticism  from  anybody.  We  are  not  receptive  in  taking 
suggestions  from  outside.  I  think  some  of  us  in  our  plant 
have  gained  most  in  efficiency  through  this  especial  point  in 
Scientific  Management. 

MR.  SMITH:  The  foreman,  being  a  capable  man  of  experi- 
ence, does  too  many  things. 

MR.  COOKE  :  The  only  way  that  I  have  found  automatically 
to  stop  people  from  doing  things  they  should  not  do  is  to 
state  their  duties  in  writing.  When  it  is  in  writing,  they  seem 
to  be  willing  to  do  things  that  they  would  not  otherwise  do,  — 
if  it  is  in  writing  they  absolutely  have  to  do  it.  Sometimes  I 
wish  there  were  no  telephoning  between  departments.  There 
are  times  when  the  more  you  can  do  in  writing  the  better. 
It  is  a  splendid  check  on  unnecessary  labor.  We  have  made 
studies  of  people  and  have  found  that  the  clerks,  especially, 


250  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

spend  most  of  their  time  walking  back  and  forth.  Day  before 
yesterday,  one  of  the  girls  in  a  certain  office  was  going  to  send 
a  telephone  message  to  the  floor  below.  I  said  to  her,  "Why 
don't  you  write  a  note  about  it?"  So  she  did,  —  I  think  it 
took  about  ten  or  twelve  words  —  and  before  I  left  her  desk 
the  answer  to  the  note  had  come  back. 

Are  there  any  further  questions  that  anybody  would  like 
to  ask? 

MR.  ROWE:  We  have  been  inquiring  at  our  place  con- 
cerning the  best  way  to  give  an  order. 

MR.  COOKE:  I  think  that  in  the  printing  business,  where 
there  are  so  many  details,  it  gets  on  our  nerves  very  frequently. 
In  giving  instructions  and  in  correcting  people  for  having  made 
mistakes,  we  sometimes  put  considerably  more  emphasis  into 
what  we  say  than  is  done  in  other  lines  of  business.  I  have 
noticed  that  some  establishments  carry  it  so  far  that  the 
people  who  are  reproved  for  making  errors  are  likely  to  make 
more  errors  as  a  result  of  the  reproval  than  they  had  made 
before.  The  rule  I  have  tried  to  use  is  not  to  get  into  con- 
versations after  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  because  in  a 
printing  office  after  that  hour  the  tension  on  everybody  is 
very  great.  I  find  that,  if  I  postpone  my  remarks  until  the 
next  morning,  the  things  that  happened  after  four  o'clock 
the  day  before  seem  to  be  trifles.  From  the  standpoint  of 
Scientific  Management,  if  you  can  impress  your  employees 
with  the  fact  that  you  are  cooperating  with  them,  the  ones 
you  have  had  to  reprove  in  the  past,  as  a  general  thing  you 
will  find,  are  less  likely  to  fall  down  in  the  future.  Unless 
you  do  cooperate  with  them  the  whole  thing  is  off,  because 
that  is  the  spirit  and  substance  of  Scientific  Management. 

MR.  MORRISON:  In  regard  to  the  plants  which  have  put 
in  the  cost  system,  of  course  the  cost  system  shows  a  printer 
whether  he  makes  any  money  on  a  certain  job  or  not;  it  also 
shows  the  high  price  he  has  to  put  on  a  job  to  make  any  money 
on  it;  but  in  putting  this  high  price  on  it  he  loses  the  work, 
for  the  printer  who  has  not  put  in  the  cost  system  makes 
a  lower  price  and  gets  the  job.  The  other  man  loses  the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  2$I 

business.  Under  Scientific  Management  would  this  condition 
be  changed? 

MR.  COOKE  :  I  think  the  industry  is  too  big  to  be  affected 
by  that  sort  of  thing.  What  you  want  is  to  do  it  10  per 
cent  cheaper  than  anybody  else.  Now  in  Scientific  Man- 
agement the  gain  comes  from  letting  the  other  fellow  do  the 
work  you  are  losing  money  on. 

MR.  DREIER:  In  the  Forbes  Lithograph  Company  do  you 
plan  all  your  work?  Do  you  have  a  planning  department? 
Can  the  men  tell  what  type  to  use  for  the  work  before  it  goes 
to  the  printer? 

MR.  COOKE  :  We  have  not  extended  the  planning  part  under 
Scientific  Management  to  the  point  where  that  statement 
could  be  made,  but  a  great  deal  of  work  connected  with  the 
printing  industry  is  thoroughly  planned.  All  the  details 
of  the  routing  of  work,  for  instance,  and  planning  for  it,  are 
carried  out  in  certain  parts  of  the  industry  with  almost  as 
much  precision  as  is  done  in  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany. 

I  think  ten  years  from  now  it  will  be  possible  to  make 
instructions  for  composition  so  they  will  be  very  much  more 
complete,  so  we  shall  have  a  pure  style.  Men  are  going  to 
come  into  the  business.  It  is  not  necessary  to  standardize 
the  things  we  know  are  wrong  themselves. 

MR.  MORRISON:  Would  you  treat  as  three  entirely  differ- 
ent trades,  composition,  the  press-room  and  the  binding;  or 
would  you  have  one  man  plan  for  the  whole  three? 

MR.  COOKE:  Absolutely  alike.  That  to  me  goes  with  the 
foreman;  that  is  what  I  consider  the  unfortunate  feature: 
90  per  cent  of  the  work  in  the  press-room  is  exactly 
like  90  per  cent  in  the  bindery.  You  will  see  that  if  you 
analyze  it.  The  machines  are  different,  but  if  you  analyze 
the  machines  you  will  find  that  they  both  need  the  use  of  an 
oil-can  and  so  on;  they  are  90  per  cent  alike.  What  we 
are  going  to  do  is  to  emphasize  the  things  that  are  alike  in 
the  different  departments  and  stop  the  things  that  are  differ- 
ent. The  discipline  is  the  same. 


252  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


V.  PULP  AND  PAPER  MANUFACTURE 

LEADER,  MINER  CHIPMAN 
The  Emerson  Co.,  Consulting  Engineers,  New  York 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  My  experience  in  doing  efficiency  work 
in  paper-mills  has  been  limited,  consisting  of  one  contract 
only,  and  then  only  in  a  part  of  the  work,  the  calendering 
and  coating  rooms;  so  when  it  comes  to  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  principles  of  Scientific  Management  to  the  pulp- 
mill  I  should  not  be  at  all  familiar  with  that.  I  have  thought 
that  I  would  briefly  outline  at  the  beginning  the  chief  prob- 
lems which  presented  themselves  to  our  company  and  to  the 
men  engaged  upon  the  contract.  We  found  first  that  the 
operations  in  a  paper-mill  were  very  similar  to  those  in  a  flour- 
mill  —  in  a  way,  largely  mechanical  —  and  that  the  number 
of  employees  involved  was  exceedingly  limited.  Secondly, 
we  found  that  there  were  no  records  of  definite  standards. 
There  had  been  maintained  a  great  many  records  of  the  busi- 
ness in  the  past,  but  these  pointed  to  no  definite  standards; 
so  we  had  to  develop  in  our  own  way  methods  for  ascertain- 
ing them  for  calendering,  in  the  chemical,  mechanical  and 
manual  operations.  Third,  we  found  that  chemical  opera- 
tions, something  with  which  we  were  absolutely  unfamiliar 
and  incompetent  to  cope  with,  were  exceedingly  variable, 
and  at  that  point  it  was  necessary  to  call  in  the  assistance  of 
a  man  as  special  adviser  from  the  chemical  laboratory  of  the 
mill.  Fourth,  we  found  variations  in  chemical  materials. 
Fifth,  we  found  variations  in  stock  requirements.  Sixth,  we 
found  variations  in  the  organization. 

In  almost  the  first  conference  with  the  management  the 
superintendent  said,  "The  first  thing  you  will  find,  Mr. 
Chipman,  is  the  deplorable  idiosyncrasies  of  the  paper  busi- 
ness." I  looked  very  wise.  I  had  been  used  to  it.  In  every 
other  plant  in  which  I  had  been,  the  manager  would  say, 
"Our  business  is  just  a  little  different  from  any  other  business 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  253 

which  I  have  been  in."  It  took  a  year  and  nine  months  to 
demonstrate  that  pulp  and  paper  was  a  little  bit  different 
from  any  other  business,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  honest 
cooperation  and  assistance  afforded  by  the  appointment  of 
competent  men,  and  the  open  conversation  and  advice  to 
my  experts  in  the  work,  we  should  have  been  able  to  accom- 
plish no  results  of  any  kind  whatever.  We  wanted  to  start 
with  the  wood  pulp,  but  they  started  us  in  with  the  coating 
and  calendering.  It  was  the  least  efficient  part,  but  it  was 
exceedingly  difficult  to  begin  with.  We  started  the  planning 
board  and  making  the  time-studies  almost  simultaneously. 
In  the  operation  of  calendering,  we  spent  three  months  and 
a  half,  following  Mr.  Taylor's  method  of  time-studies  as 
closely  as  possible,  making  the  rough  time-study  and  the 
analysis  of  time-studies.  The  operations  in  calendering  are 
divided  into  five  or  six  parts  —  I  don't  remember  exactly 
what  —  high-speed,  low-speed,  make-ready,  taking  samples, 
mending  breaks  and  a  certain  percentage  for  delays.  We  time- 
studied  about  500  separate  rolls,  running  through  every 
grade  and  thickness.  These  data  we  analyzed,  getting  about 
1,000  analyses  of  the  time-studies,  out  of  which  grew 
schedules  upon  which  we  based  our  standard  times,  covering 
every  grade  and  weight  of  paper,  particularly  book-paper, 
run  through  that  department.  We  estimated  that  efficiency 
was  about  52  per  cent  or  53  per  cent.  Upon  the  first  week's 
operation  it  came  out  somewhere  in  that  vicinity,  —  not 
more  than  5  per  cent  variation,  to  our  surprise.  We  expected, 
from  past  experience,  that  upon  the  application  of  bonus  to 
those  standards  the  efficiency  would  immediately  come  up  and 
we  would  show  a  radical  improvement  in  efficiency  and  attend- 
ant savings.  Such  was  not  the  case.  In  all  my  experience 
I  have  never  seen  an  efficiency  curve  rise  so  slowly  or  so  uni- 
formly as  in  that  calendering  department,  although  we  offered 
20  per  cent  bonus,  with  i  per  cent  increase  upon  that.  The 
reason  was  that  they  ran  a  good  paper.  In  changing  the 
grades  of  paper,  they  happened  to  run  more  machines  and  a 
gradual  tendency  towards  increase  of  output  appeared. 


2$4  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

We  found  that  the  young  men,  the  men  who  had  been  in 
the  department  the  shortest  time,  took  hold  most  rapidly. 
For  instance,  one  man  with  a  few  months'  experience  ran  up 
to  100  per  cent  efficiency  almost  immediately.  Another 
man  of  two  years'  experience  on  an  average  over  six  months 
ran  around  99  per  cent.  As  soon  as  the  management  found 
certain  men  running  at  high  efficiency  and  other  men  lagging 
at  50  per  cent,  they  said,  "These  men  are  attaining  that  high 
per  cent  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  paper."  So  the  man  in 
charge  of  the  efficiency  department  made  an  exhaustive 
and  intricate  study  of  the  waste  problem  and  its  effect 
upon  the  efficiency,  and  he  proved  that  the  run  of  lowest 
efficiency  was  making  the  most  waste,  and  quite  reasonably 
so.  The  man  who  would  run  through  the  greatest  number 
of  feet  on  the  rolls  wanted  the  least  waste.  He  wanted  the 
least  time;  he  wanted  his  sheets  as  clean  as  possible  running 
over  those  calenders.  And  in  that  line  we  were  particularly 
gratified. 

Our  work  passed  into  the  coating  room  and  back  into  the 
paper-machines.  Then  we  jumped  clear  over  into  the  cutting, 
sorting  and  finishing  room.  I  want  to  make  a  final,  general 
statement  as  to  our  figures.  After  we  had  made  certain  tests 
of  various  departments,  we  found  we  were  up  against  a  de- 
pendent sequence  of  operations.  The  paper-machines  being 
the  most  costly  equipment,  the  effort  to  secure  efficiency 
was  concentrated  upon  the  paper-machines.  They  had  a 
good  product,  had  good  discharge,  and  the  percentage  of  the 
efficiency  was  high.  It  was  reasonable  to  think  that  if 
the  coating  and  calendering  department  was  taking  care  of 
the  paper,  it  was  over-equipped  30  to  40  per  cent.  That  is, 
if  we  attained  to  100  per  cent  in  coating  and  calendering,  we 
would  have  to  do  away  with  30  or  40  per  cent  of  our  equip- 
ment or  increase  the  equipment  of  the  paper-machines, 
and  the  question  came  up  whether  we  could  sell  the  paper. 
I  saw,  too,  that  if  we  brought  up  the  efficiency  of  the  coating 
and  calendering  we  should  have  to  increase  the  capacity  of  the 
cutting,  sorting  and  finishing  departments. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  255 

If  I  were  to  go  there  again,  the  first  step  would  be  con- 
cerned with  the  organization.  I  would  bring  every  one,  from 
the  president  of  the  company  down  to  the  last  man  in  the 
laboratory,  into  the  reorganization.  The  second  thing;  I 
would  attempt  to  get  my  material  through  from  the  pulp- 
mill  at  a  predetermined  efficiency  and  to  move  along  from 
department  to  department  in  such  dependent  sequence,  that 
important  changes  in  requirements  of  equipment  would  not 
come  suddenly  before  the  management. 

As  to  particular  questions  or  problems,  any  one  is  at 
liberty  to  ask  questions,  upon  points  I  may  have  suggested; 
or  I  should  be  glad  if  you  would  take  them  up  among  your- 
selves and  discuss  them. 

MR.  WOLF:  We  started  in  at  the  Burgess  Sulphite  Fiber 
plant  about  five  years  ago  to  develop  our  business  along 
scientific  lines.  At  that  time  we  had  the  reputation  of  mak- 
ing the  worst  pulp  in  the  world.  From  making  the  worst 
pulp  that  was  made  in  the  world  five  years  ago,  we  have 
developed  a  plant  making  the  best.  At  any  rate,  we  have 
increased  the  production  from  an  average  of  225  tons  a  day 
at  that  time  to  350  tons,  and  in  so  doing  we  have  been 
able  to  decrease  the  cost  of  manufacture. 

We  started  in  to  make  a  pulp  equal  to  the  European  pulp, 
and  in  casting  around  for  a  reason  for  the  superiority  of  the 
European  pulp,  we  found  that  in  Europe  they  were  employ- 
ing technical  men  to  solve  their  problems.  Though  Scientific 
Management,  as  we  understand  it  and  as  we  have  heard  it, 
has  not  been  brought  about  there,  they  have  studied  their 
business  from  a  scientific  standpoint.  They  are  employing 
only  the  best  men  as  their  superintendents  and  foremen.  They 
lay  particular  stress  upon  technical  training,  and  for  that 
reason  they  have  been  able  to  make  pulp  such  as  we  could 
not  make  in  this  country,  because  we  haven't  applied  to  the 
business  the  technical  knowledge  available.  So  we  started 
along  these  lines.  We  increased  our  laboratory  force  from 
one  man  until  we  have  seven  chemists  employed  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  —  I  mean  seven  graduate  chemists.  We  have  in 


2  $6  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

addition  a  lot  of  men  collecting  statistics  connected  with  the 
laboratory  force,  making  an  organization  considerably  larger 
than  any  we  know  of  with  other  companies.  Some  of  these 
men  are  employed  at  investigation  work,  others  are  carrying 
out  routine. 

We  began  then  to  study  the  problems  of  management  accord- 
ing to  our  lights.  We  had  no  knowledge  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, but  in  a  good  many  instances  we  were  able  to  set  our 
laboratory  force  investigating  things  chemical  in  their  nature, 
things  that  had  reference  to  reduction  of  labor  cost  and 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  plant.  We  started  a  system  of 
keeping  track  of  the  cost  of  handling  raw  materials  per 
unit.  For  instance,  in  one  department  handling  wood  we 
have  three  men,  one  at  each  shift,  and  each  of  those  three 
men  keeps  a  labor  slip  which  shows  each  day  the  cost  of 
handling.  That  is  put  on  his  time-card  the  day  following 
the  day's  work.  On  that  card  we  have  also  his  average  for 
the  month,  as  well  as  the  average  for  each  of  the  other  two 
men,  and  also  opposite  that  the  average  established  on  that 
particular  grade  of  work.  From  that  we  get  the  efficiency. 

When  Mr.  Taylor's  and  Mr.  Emerson's  articles  first  came 
out,  we  were  very  much  interested.  I  went  down  to  see  Mr. 
Taylor  and  I  got  some  very  interesting  points.  We  realized 
that  we  had  just  scratched  the  surface  and  that  there  was 
infinitely  more  to  it.  It  is  my  firm  conviction  that  in  order 
to  bring  the  paper  business  to  the  point  of  efficiency  obtained 
in  the  old  country,  —  I  am  speaking  from  the  pulp  end,  but 
I  know  more  or  less  about  the  paper  end  —  we  must  employ 
technical  men.  Mr.  Everard  said  that  he  was  very  much 
impressed  during  the  trip  he  made  through  Germany,  Nor- 
way and  Sweden,  with  the  fact  that  the  men  at  the  heads 
of  the  companies  were  paid  very  large  salaries  and  that  they 
selected  the  very  best  type  of  men  they  could  get.  I  think 
the  mistake  is  made  here  generally  in  not  employing  mana- 
gers, —  in  employing  superintendents.  We  hire  a  man  and 
do  not  hold  him  responsible. 

MR.    CHIPMAN:    Focusing  the  best  technical  knowledge 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  257 

upon  pulp  manufacture  is  Scientific  Management  pure  and 
simple,  and  particularly  in  paper-mills  where  there  are  such 
tremendous  actions  and  reactions,  —  I  can't  give  the  chemical 
phraseology,  but  the  effect  of  the  variations  of  the  chemicals 
upon  the  pulp  and  paper  are  so  enormous  as  to  far  transcend 
the  efficiency  of  a  single  workman  or  a  whole  department.  The 
standardizing  of  them  I  consider  one  of  the  greatest  moves 
in  the  paper  industry,  and  I  understand  they  have  traced 
curves  at  the  Berlin  mills  showing  the  product  for  a  long  period 
of  time,  which  is  admirable. 

MR.  WOLF:  We  have  found  that  this  thing  pays.  We 
have  not  spent  one  single  dollar  that  we  have  not  got  back  in 
less  than  a  month's  time,  and  in  other  companies  they  have 
more  than  paid  in  less  than  a  year's  time.  I.  say  this  because 
a  great  many  investigations  take  over  a  year  before  one 
can  draw  conclusions.  The  thing  pays  and  it  pays  greatly, 
in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  money  invested.  You  can't 
afford  to  do  without  it. 

MR.  WHITNEY:  I  should  like  to  ask  Mr.  Wolf  if  in  their 
scientific  department  they  adopted  the  bonus  system  in  any 
way. 

MR.  WOLF:  We  haven't  gone  into  that  at  all.  The  piece- 
work system  has  never  been  used  in  the  paper-mills,  and  we 
feel  that  that  is  a  thing  that  we  should  have  to  go  very  cau- 
tiously about.  Whether  it  is  at  all  wise  to  establish  a  piece- 
work system  or  not  is  a  question.  We  do  believe  that  men 
should  be  compensated  for  the  work  that  they  do,  and  that  it 
pays  to  employ  good  men.  That  is  a  thing  we  are  studying 
very  carefully.  It  would  be  most  ill-advised  to  start  in  and 
upset  the  rate  of  wages  before  you  have  made  careful  study 
and  taken  into  consideration  the  effect  it  may  have  upon  the 
rest  of  the  plant.  The  thing  never  has  been  done  in  a  paper- 
mill.  It  is  a  revolution.  The  thing  has  to  work  in  through 
the  organization  first.  Make  some  changes,  get  interested 
in  it.  As  Mr.  Taylor  puts  it,  collect  the  primitive  knowledge 
the  men  have  first  and  improve  upon  it,  study  and  apply 
it.  From  the  inertia  and  antagonism  that  exist  in  a  paper- 


258  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

mill  towards  anything  new,  we  have  worked  up  a  spirit  of 
cooperation  there,  so  that  the  men  are  more  disappointed  if 
there  is  any  failure  than  we  are.  For  that  reason  we  are  very 
careful  not  to  make  any  false  moves  and  make  sure  that  we 
are  going  to  make  successes.  Each  success  makes  the  men 
more  confident  in  the  management.  It  gives  them  a  feeling 
of  pride  in  the  organization. 

MR.  WHITNEY:  I  appreciate  the  fact  that  it  is  a  very  diffi- 
cult thing  to  establish  a  reward  or  a  bonus.  At  least  I  haven't 
been  able  to  do  it  as  yet;  but  so  much  stress  has  been  laid 
upon  that  point  that  I  should  like  to  hear,  if  anybody  has 
anything  to  say  on  that  subject,  how  one  would  apply  that 
sort  of  thing  to  paper-making. 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  In  the  particular  plant  where  we  applied 
the  bonus  to  500  or  600  men,  we  had  no  complaint 
between  the  various  departments  as  to  the  bonus  that  was 
earned  by  any  department.  We  maintained  the  rate  of  wages 
current  in  the  mill.  That  has  to  be  guaranteed  under  any 
bonus  system  which  is  equitable,  and  upon  that  we  paid  a 
bonus  in  proportion  to  the  efficiency.  If  the  entire  average 
of  your  departments  were  equal,  your  rate  of  wages  would  be 
the  same,  but  if  you  should  suddenly  develop  a  man  at  100 
or  150  per  cent  beside  a  man  of  40  or  50  per  cent,  there 
would  be  considerable  variation.  Then  it  becomes  a  ques- 
tion whether  you  are  putting  in  a  premature  bonus  or  not. 
I  am  coming  more  and  more  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  a  bonus 
should  be  the  last  thing  to  be  introduced  into  your  plant. 
Your  conditions  should  be  standardized,  your  organization 
perfected,  before  ever  thinking  of  adopting  one  cent  of  bonus. 
I  think  at  a  great  many  plants  the  bonus  has  been  put  in 
before  they  really  had  an  exact  standard,  and  a  higher  bonus 
was  established  than  was  necessary. 

MR.  WHITNEY:  I  should  like  to  make  this  inquiry  in  con- 
nection with  the  statements  you  have  just  made:  did  you  in 
the  course  of  your  work  in  that  particular  mill,  establish 
individual  efficiency  records  or  did  you  establish  room  records, 
or  gang  records,  or  establish  the  unit  working  hours? 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  259 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  The  only  way  we  could  pay  a  bonus  was 
to  get  the  efficiency  on  each  individual  operation.  Averages 
mean  nothing.  You  cannot  take  even  pretty  stiff  averages 
in  a  paper-mill  and  pay  a  bonus.  We  had  the  record  of  each 
individual  operation  of  the  work.  We  maintained  the  record 
of  the  efficiency  of  a  particular  man  on  all  the  grades  of  paper 
that  he  ran  on  a  certain  machine,  totaling  the  standard  time 
he  developed  and  the  actual  time  he  consumed,  and  the  ratio 
gave  him  an  average  efficiency  covering  the  total  period.  The 
bonus  was  paid  on  that  efficiency.  We  maintained  an  indi- 
vidual efficiency  record  for  every  workman  on  every  machine. 
If  the  foreman  of  a  department  wanted  to  know  what  any 
particular  man  was  doing  he  could  turn  immediately  to  the 
records  and  they  would  show  what  that  man  had  done  for  any 
time,  —  any  day  or  week,  or  his  average.  Those  records 
could  have  been  maintained  irrespective  of  any  bonus 
system. 

QUESTION:  I  am  not  a  paper  man  but  I  have  been  through 
a  paper-mill,  —  walked  through  —  and  I  should  like  to  know 
how  it  is  possible  to  get  individual  records  in  a  room  such  as 
that  in  which  the  big  paper-machines  are,  where  five  or  six 
operators  are  on  one  machine  and  no  one  of  them,  so  far  as 
I  can  see,  could  be  made  responsible  for  any  particular  product. 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  You  have  stated  an  exception  right  off. 
That  would  be  the  same  as  Mr.  Taylor's  gang  system.  We 
include  that  big  operation  as  a  whole.  It  then  becomes  the 
efficiency  of  the  gang. 

QUESTION:  If  you  should  attempt  to  establish  a  bonus,  it 
would  be  for  gang  efficiency? 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  Yes.  For  instance,  in  gang  work — not  in 
paper-mill  work  —  a  very  interesting  thing  once  came  up. 
In  Pittsburg,  on  a  particularly  large  contract,  we  estab- 
lished a  certain  wage  for  the  gang,  not  an  individual  work- 
man's wage.  We  set  $10  a  day  for  the  gang;  five  men 
in  the  gang,  $2  apiece.  If  four  men  could  do  that  work 
they  would  still  get  the  $10,  so  added  to  the  bonus  was  the 
impetus  for  selection  among  those  men  and  they  would  want 


260  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

to  reduce  their  crew  to  the  lowest  possible  number  of  men. 
The  result  was  that  in  that  particular  crew  in  a  large  boiler 
shop,  in  the  course  of  the  work  they  reduced  their  crews 
from  eight  to  five,  turned  out  the  same  amount  of  work 
and  got  the  same  wages  as  the  former  crew  of  eight. 

QUESTION:  Where  did  the  other  men  go? 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  When  you  ask  me  where  the  other  men 
went,  you  then  come  to  another  interesting  problem.  In  one 
plant  we  were  laboring  strenuously  trying  to  reduce  the  pay- 
roll in  a  certain  department.  They  asked  what  results  we 
were  getting  and  we  said,  "We  have  reduced  that  pay-roll 
20  per  cent."  The  manager  said,  "I  don't  see  that  you 
have,  the  total  pay-roll  is  just  the  same."  We  found  the 
fellows  who  had  been  removed  from  the  first  department 
were  in  another  department.  We  got  them  out  of  there  and 
we  still  found  that  the  pay-roll  was  not  coming  down.  So  we 
went  through  the  whole  plant,  and  we  finally  found  those 
fellows  out  in  the  yard  doing  yard  work,  and  it  was  not  until 
we  had  absolutely  finished  the  plant  and  walked  out  the  back 
door  that  we  knew  what  had  become  of  them. 

MR.  MOORE:  What  would  you  do  if  you  were  in  a  town 
where  the  whole  population  is  inefficient.  You  cannot  fire 
your  labor.  They  get  their  pay  and  then  take  two  or  three 
days  off. 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  Your  question  is  a  very  good  one.  We 
divide  plants  into  two  divisions,  —  one  which  the  efficiency 
engineer  or  betterment  engineer  can  work  upon;  the  other 
which  requires  the  services  of  a  surgeon.  If  a  man  has  a 
paper-mill  and  there  is  a  railroad  through  the  town  and  a  river 
flowing  there,  if  that  river  suddenly  changes  its  course  and 
the  railroad  ceases  to  run,  I  should  think  the  paper-mill  in  a 
bad  state;  but  it  is  not  a  job  for  the  efficiency  engineer,  it  is 
a  job  for  the  mover.  When  it  comes  to  a  paper-mill  in  a 
town  where  a  lot  of  families  are  growing  up  and  the  manager 
marries  the  sister  of  the  wife  of  the  mill-owner,  or  the  fore- 
man of  the  finishing  department  marries  the  daughter  of  the 
superintendent  of  the  stock-room,  I  should  say,  handle  the 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  261 

Scientific  Management  step  mighty  carefully.    I  have  been 
there. 

MR.  WOLF:  Have  you  ever  applied  any  tests  to  the  paper- 
machine  end? 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  The  paper-machine  end  was  taken  up  by 
the  man  who  superseded  me  in  charge  of  the  department. 
In  our  opinion  he  did  most  admirable  work.  We  found  the 
ordinary  time-study  applied  only  to  the  most  limited  degree. 
It  covered  practically  only  the  delays  in  the  matter  of  chang- 
ing the  width  and  putting  on  a  new  felt.  The  repairing  and 
new  parts  of  machines  we  could  time-study,  but  when  we 
came  to  the  actual  making  of  the  paper,  if  we  were  to  stand 
with  a  stop-watch  what  were  we  going  to  write  down?  So 
the  gentleman  in  charge  of  that  work  made  a  minute  study, 
covering  a  long  period  of  years,  of  the  achievement  of  the 
paper-machines  upon  every  grade  and  weight,  until  he  had 
plotted  a  curve  of  the  achievement  of  each  machine  from  a 
very  low  weight  to  a  very  heavy  weight  and  he  got  some 
beautiful  curves.  It  is  a  matter  of  long  time;  it  is  a  matter 
of  variations,  and  the  mere  matter  of  a  stop-watch  time- 
study  would  be  rather  futile. 

MR.  WOLF:  Have  you  made  time-studies  to  standardize 
the  beaters? 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  We  never  timed  them;  we  didn't  like  the 
looks  of  them.  The  man  in  charge  of  the  beaters  said  he 
could  reach  down  into  the  machine  and  in  that  way  tell  ex- 
actly what  its  condition  was,  and  after  a  little  investigation  I 
found  that  that  was  literally  true.  Mr.  Greene  had  spent  a 
number  of  hours  making  lantern-slides  of  various  stages  of 
the  beater  work,  and  after  he  got  through  with  all  that,  this 
old  fellow  could  stick  his  hand  down  into  the  machine  and  tell 
him  more  about  it  than  all  his  slides  could  prove. 

MR.  WOLF:  I  found  the  thing  worked  out  very  success- 
fully in  a  mill  I  was  in  a  few  days  ago. 

MR.  CHIPMAN:  I  understand  that  they  have  worked  it  out 
at  some  plants,  but  as  far  as  I  was  concerned  I  let  the  beater 
proposition  alone. 


262  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  WOLF:  I  will  not  say  where  I  saw  this,  but  I  saw  a 
beater-roll  which  was  worked  by  means  of  hydraulic  pres- 
sure, whereby  certain  pressure  could  be  put  on  the  bed-plate 
and  for  certain  grades  of  stock  they  had  an  absolute  schedule 
of  just  how  many  pounds  of  pressure  should  be  used.  They 
had  a  very  good  thing.  It  struck  me  as  about  the  only 
solution  of  the  beater  problem.  It  will  be  put  on  the  market 
very  shortly.  It  is  working  and  very  successfully. 

MR.  MOORE  :  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  business  that  has 
quite  so  many  variables  as  the  paper  business.  In  the  first 
place,  you  have  the  variation  in  the  wood,  the  same  kind  of 
wood  grown  in  different  localities;  in  the  second  place,  you 
have  variation  in  time  of  year  the  wood  is  cut;  third,  you  have 
variation  in  the  time  it  is  stored  before  use;  fourth,  you 
have  variation  in  your  chipping,  which  may  be  considerable; 
fifth,  you  have  the  chemical  variations;  and  those  chemical 
variations,  which  I  shall  not  go  into  minutely,  can  be  classed 
under  the  variations  of  acid,  that  is  to  say,  the  bases,  the  pro- 
portions of  your  bases  and  the  kind  of  bases  in  use,  the 
proportion  of  your  acid  radical  and,  more  or  less,  the  kind 
of  acid  radical;  then  the  cooking,  the  variations  of  tempera- 
tures and  a  whole  lot  of  secondary  reactions  which  take  place 
due  to  the  variation  in  temperatures.  In  fact,  one  variable 
affects  another  variable  so  much  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
where  one  variable  begins  and  where  the  other  one  ends,  or 
whether  it  is  due  to  this  variable  or  to  something  entirely 
overlooked.  Then  after  that  you  have  several  other  variables, 
such  as  the  effect  of  washing  with  hot  or  cold  water  and 
different  things  of  that  sort.  I  might  go  right  through  the 
whole  list,  even  down  to  drying.  You  say,  "There  is  no 
variation  in  drying,"  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  you  are  changing 
a  certain  amount  of  pulp  into  sugar,  and  from  the  start  to 
the  finish  in  making  a  pulp  you  have  chemical  variations  that 
can  be  told  only  by  the  result  of  the  tests.  You  see  the 
finished  product,  but  you  don't  see  the  process  as  you  do  in  a 
lathe.  There  is  no  chance  for  chemical  measurement  of  the 
variables. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  263 

MR.  WOLF:  I  have  every  confidence  that  if  the  paper 
and  pulp  manufacturers  of  this  country  should  apply  the 
technical  knowledge  we  have,  we  should  beat  the  world.  I 
think  that  applies  to  any  industry.  I  don't  think  that  is 
"  spread-eagleism." 

MR.  MULLIKEN:  Going  back  to  the  original  speech  of 
Mr.  Wolf,  in  which  he  told  what  good  work  the  Burgess 
Sulphite  Fiber  Company  has  done,  I  should  like  to  ask  Mr. 
Wolf  about  the  time-studies  which  increased  the  output  of 
his  mill  from  225  to  350  tons.  Is  that  right? 

MR.  WOLF:  I  want  to  correct  that  impression.  That  was 
not  due  to  time-studies,  but  wholly  to  the  quality  of  the  pulp 
which  the  paper-makers  were  using. 

MR.  MULLIKEN:  I  will  vary  my  question  a  little  bit.  You 
did  get  some  increase  from  time-studies? 

MR.  WOLF:  Oh,  yes;  we  did. 

MR.  MULLIKEN:  Were  the  men  rewarded  in  any  way? 

MR.  WOLF:  I  think  I  answered  that  question  originally. 
We  have  made  no  change  in  our  method  of  paying  the  men. 

MR.  MULLIKEN:  And  they  were  quite  willing  to  abide  by 
the  time-studies? 

MR.  WOLF:  The  men  did  not  know  any  time-studies  were 
being  made.  We  made  them  in  such  a  way  that  they  didn't 
know  anything  about  it. 

MR.  MULLIKEN:  Do  you  know  any  paper-mill  that  has 
adopted  Scientific  Management? 

MR.  WOLF:  I  know  one  paper-mill  that  is  now  in  process 
of  adopting  it.  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  name  the  mill,  but  it  is 
under  Mr.  Taylor's  management.  I  talked  with  the  manager 
and  he  is  very  enthusiastic  and  sees  possibilities  that  he  had 
never  dreamed  of. 

QUESTION:  Can  you  tell  us  what  grades  of  paper  they  make? 

MR.  WOLF:  Book  paper,  fine  paper. 

QUESTION:  Coated? 

MR.  WOLF:  Yes.  Don't  ask  any  further  questions  for  I 
can't  say  any  more.  They  make  very  fine  papers,  I  will  say 
that. 


264  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  WHITNEY:  Would  not  your  judgment  be,  Mr.  Wolf, 
that  the  only  really  good  way  to  introduce  Scientific  Manage- 
ment is  to  get  a  very  competent  man  who  has  been  through 
that  sort  of  thing  in  some  other  industry,  who  could  bring  to 
that  business  the  knowledge  he  has  gained  through  other 
business  in  that  work,  rather  than  to  get  the  man  who  is 
trying  to  manage  the  men  and  do  it  himself? 

Mr.  WOLF:  I  think  that  is  a  very  desirable  thing  to  do, 
to  get  a  good  man  to  come  in  and  start  you  right. 

MR.  WHITNEY:  It  seems  to  me  that  going  wrong  at  the 
very  start  would  be  fatal  to  success. 

MR.  WOLF:  Yes.  We  started  using  cooking  records.  We 
plotted  graphically  the  process  of  cooking  and  plotted  the 
gas  pressure,  which  is  the  pressure  computed  from  the  tem- 
perature. We  subtract  the  gas  pressure  from  what  we  call 
the  steam  pressure  and  obtain  the  actual  pressure.  If  that 
drops  too  rapidly,  it  shows  the  digester  is  being  relieved  too 
hard.  We  started  in  to  use  those  records  and  we  almost  had 
a  strike.  The  men  would  not  use  them;  they  said  they  could 
not  be  taught  to  see  with  a  lead  pencil,  but  they  finally  took 
it  on  trial.  By  handling  them  very  carefully  and  getting 
their  good  will,  they  fell  in  with  the  idea,  and  you  could  not 
take  it  away  from  them  today.  I  was  showing  one  of  our 
men  these  cooking  records  and  I  said,  "I  am  going  to  show 
you  some  thing, "  and  I  hauled  out  some  old  mill  records.  He 
said,  "Did  we  ever  cook  like  that?"  I  said,  "You  certainly 
did."  He  said,  "It  makes  a  fellow  feel  the  same  as  looking  at 
a  picture  of  himself  when  he  was  drunk,  after  he  had  sobered 
up."  That  was  the  change  in  their  attitude  towards  these 
things.  Our  men  will  now  take  anything  of  that  kind.  It 
had  taken  five  years  to  bring  that  about,  and  we  have  had  to 
go  at  it  very  carefully  and  cautiously  and  we  sometimes  got 
near  the  danger  line.  Now  there  is  no  danger  at  all.  We  can 
try  any  innovation  we  want. 

MR.  MOORE:  The  charting  of  your  results  in  a  paper-mill 
is  about  the  only  method  I  know  of  arriving  at  what  you  are 
doing.  The  first  time  that  struck  me  was  in  the  year  1899. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  265 

Mr.  Barton,  head  of  our  chemical-mill  (I  helped  him,  but  I 
think  his  was  the  original  idea) ,  charted  some  efficiency  curves, 
showing  what  governed  the  efficiency  of  service.  We  dis- 
covered a  very  remarkable  law  —  what  the  law  is  I  am  not 
stating  at  this  meeting.  Suffice  to  say,  that  mill  has  been 
running  according  to  that  law  ever  since.  The  only  way  the 
effect  of  one  variable  upon  another  can  be  shown  is  to  draw 
some  major  line  and  the  effect  of  these  variables  upon  this 
major  line  must  be  charted.  You  can  plot  results  and  work 
backwards  so  as  to  see  what  is  happening,  and  that  is  the 
only  way  you  can  work  in  the  paper  industry,  where  you  have 
such  complex  problems. 

MR.  WHITNEY:  I  had  an  interesting  experience  in  con- 
nection with  our  ground-wood  mill.  It  is  a  very  small  mill. 
The  power  from  year  to  year  is  quite  variable,  depending  upon 
meteorological  conditions.  We  found  that  when  the  power 
was  less  we  were  making  proportionately  more  pulp.  That 
was  done  simply  by  a  curve;  we  plotted  the  results  of  what 
we  should  get  under  the  power,  assuming  certain  conditions, 
and  then  we  plotted  what  we  did  get.  These  two  curves 
were  very  close  together  at  the  lower  extremity  where  the 
power  was  less,  and  as  we  went  up  nearer  the  full  capacity 
of  the  mill  the  actual  production  fell  off  very  materially  from 
the  theoretical  curve.  Then  the  thing  to  do  was  to  look 
about  and  see  what  the  difficulty  was.  This  brought  out 
the  fact  in  our  case  that  when  we  were  suffering  from  low 
water  we  were  grinding  at  very  low  pressure  and  reasonably 
sharp  stone,  as  sharp  as  we  could  get  without  making  inferior 
pulp.  Then  we  set  about  to  keep  these  conditions  uniform 
through  any  amount  of  power  we  might  be  having  up  to  the 
capacity  of  the  mill.  Instead  of  changing  the  pressure  on 
one  grinder  as  the  amount  of  power  increased,  we  simply  put 
on  another  grinder;  not  increasing  the  pressure  any  more, 
but  keeping  that  constant  and  increasing  the  amount  of  wood 
put  on  the  stone.  Unfortunately,  after  adopting  the  system 
there  has  been  no  increase  in  the  power  itself.  For  three 
years  we  have  had  very  low  water  so  we  haven't  been  able  to 


266  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

see  how  our  actual  production  curve  compares  with  the 
theoretical  one,  but  as  far  as  we  have  data,  it  looks  as  if  the 
two  would  coincide.  It  shows  the  value  of  putting  these 
things  into  graphic  form,  for  that  point  might  be  easily 
overlooked  in  a  mass  of  figures. 

MR.  WOLF:  Did  you  determine  the  best  pressure  per 
square  inch? 

MR.  WHITNEY:  No,  we  haven't  got  so  far  as  that,  but  we 
determined  that  on  our  sixteen-inch  rolls  a  pressure  of  twenty- 
five  pounds  per  square  inch  was  ample. 

MR.  WOLF:  I  mean  on  the  surface  of  wood  exposed? 

MR.  WHITNEY:  That  of  course  would  have  to  be  multi- 
plied by  the  power  per  cylinder  and  divided  by  the  square 
inches  of  the  stone.  I  haven't  done  that. 

MR.  MOORE:  The  graphic  methods  are  the  only  methods 
you  can  use  with  any  degree  of  success  in  showing  results,  in  a 
paper-mill  especially;  and  it  would  pay  any  mill  to  put  in  a 
room  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  information  and  plotting 
it  graphically  and  handling  the  statistics. 

MR  WHITNEY:  I  am  doing  that  as  fast  as  I  can. 

MR.  MOORE:  In  the  graphic  system  you  stumble  onto 
laws  that  you  didn't  think  existed.  That  is  very  interesting. 

QUESTION:  Mr.  Wolf,  what  experience  have  you  had  along 
the  line  of  handling  materials,  storage  of  pulp  and  paper? 

MR.  WOLF:  You  mean  in  the  storehouse?  We  have  had 
so  many  other  things  we  have  neglected  it.  We  are  starting 
now  to  put  in  a  thorough  system  of  storehouse  operation.  I 
have  been  through  the  Watertown  Arsenal  and  the  Tabor 
shops  and  one  other  place  where  I  have  seen  it  in  operation. 
It  is  a  splendid  thing.  It  enables  you  to  reduce  your  stock 
on  hand  to  the  minimum  and  never  be  in  danger  of  running 
out. 

QUESTION:  I  should  think  it  would  be  one  of  your  biggest 
auxiliaries,  you  have  such  a  large  plant. 

MR.  WOLF:  Our  main  supply  is  wood.  We  keep  any- 
where from  $500,000  to  $1,000,000  worth  of  wood  on  hand. 
We  have  usually  not  far  from  $750,000  worth  in  the  Burgess 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  267 

mill  alone.  That  of  course  you  cannot  regulate  by  any  par- 
ticular system.  You  have  to  govern  yourself  by  the  market 
conditions;  you  must  buy  when  you  can  and  store  it.  We 
carry  about  $190,000  worth  of  mill  supplies  and,  of  course, 
as  the  mill  is  large  and  doing  a  good  deal  of  work,  we  need 
a  large  supply,  but  this  is  too  large,  and  we  figure  that  we 
can  cut  it  down  a  great  deal.  I  don't  see  a  single  thing 
about  the  paper  business,  even  down  to  the  operation  of  the 
machines,  that  can't  be  worked  out  on  an  absolutely  scien- 
tific basis.  We  have  standardized  things  that  we  had  no 
conception  when  we  started  we  could  standardize,  any  more 
than  we  could  standardize  the  blacking  of  a  pair  of  shoes, 
yet  we  have  succeeded  and  are  getting  surprising  results. 
I  don't  think  these  paper  problems  can  resist  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  them  any  more  than  any  other 
business  can. 

MR.  WHITNEY:  I  think  you  strike  very  much  greater  prej- 
udices in  the  paper  industry.  I  don't  know  of  any  more 
prejudiced  people  than  those  in  the  paper-mills. 

MR.  WOLF:  Absolutely  the  worst.  I  don't  mean  to  hurt 
any  one's  feelings.  I  mean  the  old  fellow  who  has  worked 
along  in  the  old  way.  When  I  started  in  to  learn  the  business, 
I  had  to  keep  almighty  quiet  the  fact  that  I  was  a  college 
man.  The  idea  of  a  college  man  wanting  to  learn  the  paper 
business  was  preposterous  to  them. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  I  think  the  problem  the  paper  men  are 
coming  to  find,  is  not  so  much  the  making  of  paper  as  the 
maintenance  of  machines,  keeping  them  in  condition  and 
having  them  work  perfectly,  and  not  having  them  run  with 
a  little  jerk  here  and  a  jump  there.  When  you  go  down  the 
line  you  find  perhaps  a  machine  is  bucking  and  things  of  that 
sort,  yet  you  wonder  why  the  paper  doesn't  come  uniform. 
You  go  into  the  grinder-room  and  you  find  they  have  the  roll 
lower  on  one  side  than  on  the  other,  and  you  expect  the  men 
to  make  a  fine  roll  of  paper.  The  difficulty  is  with  the  organi- 
zation, in  not  looking  after  things  of  that  sort,  in  allowing 
them  to  occur. 


268  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  WHITNEY:  So  many  things  can  happen.  I  remember 
our  mill  was  making  " broken"  fir  three  days  and  we  could  not 
discover  the  cause.  Somebody  was  bright  enough  to  chart  the 
clutch,  —  an  old-fashioned  cup  clutch.  He  drew  a  line  across 
the  two  parts  of  the  clutch  and  after  a  while,  —  after  the  next 
break — looked  at  the  chart  line  and  found  that  had  pulled  off, 
showing  that  it  had  been  slipping.  Just  that  had  made  all 
the  difference.  We  had  lost  practically  the  whole  product  for 
two  or  three  days  because  that  clutch  was  slipping. 

MR.  LINCOLN:  I  should  like  to  inquire  whether  the  gentle- 
man who  asked  about  stores  has  any  information  to  give  us. 

MR.  CAMP:  I  haven't;  I  was  trying  to  find  out  what  the 
other  fellow  knew. 

MR.  WOLF:  The  best  places  to  get  that  are  the  Water- 
town  Arsenal  or  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company  of 
Philadelphia.  At  both  of  these  places  the  management  will 
be  glad  to  show  you  what  they  have. 

MR.  MOORE:  I  have  been  to  both.  They  are  very  similar. 
Watertown  is  the  newest  and  the  letters  on  the  storeroom 
are  more  suggestive  of  the  article  you  wish  to  find. 

MR.  CAMP  :  I  have  only  one  question,  —  about  the  double- 
bin  system.  At  Watertown  they  went  into  it  very  liberally. 
There  they  are  free  from  competition  and  they  have  the 
double-bin  arrangement,  taking  a  great  deal  of  space  which 
in  some  manufacturing  plants  is  expensive. 

MR.  WOLF:  In  order  to  give  the  Government  certain 
information  they  want,  they  have  to  put  in  a  lot  of  unnec- 
essary stuff  that  would  not  ordinarily  enter  into  the  case. 
You  will  see  a  more  simplified  system  at  the  Tabor  shops. 

MR.  MOORE:  In  keeping  supplies  of  such  petty  fittings  as 
elbows,  tees,  screws  and  everything  of  that  kind,  —  things 
that  are  used  in  large  quantities,  —  you  can't  know,  if  they 
are  in  one  large  box,  how  many  you  have.  You  are  using  a 
thousand  quarter-inch  bits  a  day;  you  are  not  buying  those 
every  day,  and  if  you  have  the  double-bin  arrangement  it  is 
a  warning  when  you  have  used  one  that  the  storekeeper  should 
get  busy  and  order  some  more. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  269 


VI.  LUMBERING  AND  THE  MANAGEMENT  OF 
TIMBER  PROPERTIES 

LEADER,  W.  R.  BROWN 
Berlin  Mitts  Co.,  Berlin,  N.  H. 

MR.  BROWN:  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  we  are 
here  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  new 
ideas  for  securing  an  immediate  or  ultimate 
economy  in  our  line  of  business.  With  this  in  view  it  gives 
me  pleasure  to  present  to  you  a  partial  scheme  of  manage- 
ment we  have  worked  out,  which,  though  far  from  complete, 
may  suggest  some  new  ideas  to  you  in  your  several  lines. 

I  will  take  up  forestry  first,  it  being  both  an  integral  part 
of  a  properly  conducted  industry  and  of  importance  also  to 
the  larger  interests  of  state  and  country. 

Given  a  tract  of  untouched  timber-land  to  start  with,  the 
first  duty  is  to  secure  an  expert  and  determine  its  condition 
as  to  growth  and  value  and  prearrange  a  plan  for  its  care,  in 
order  that  the  owner,  either  private  or  public,  may  reap  the 
greatest  benefit  therefrom.  The  forester  will  explore  it  to 
report  on  the  kind  and  amount  of  lumber,  its  condition  of 
growth,  what  shall  be  taken,  what  left,  etc.  He  will  survey 
and  map  it  carefully  to  present  this  information  in  a  concise 
way,  usually  by  means  of  contour-line  maps,  pain  ted  or  ruled  to 
show  species.  He  will  make  a  plan  to  protect  the  land  in  the 
future  from  decay  and  wind-throw  by  judicious  cuttings;  from 
insect  depredations;  and  from  fire  risk  by  the  establishment 
of  watchmen  on  the  tops  of  mountains,  the  use  of  patrols,  the 
building  of  trails  and  telephones,  installing  fire-fighting  appa- 
ratus at  needed  points;  and  in  a  broader  way  by  cooperating 
with  his  neighbors  and  the  state  along  these  lines. 

I  will  say  that  within  the  last  year  the  timber-land  owners 
of  New  Hampshire  have  cooperated  with  the  state  both  in  a 
financial  way  and  in  the  way  of  putting  on  men,  and  that  we 
now  also  have  the  cooperation  of  the  Federal  government, 


270  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

and  the  system  is  worked  out  in  the  best  possible  way  for 
all  people  concerned. 

The  forester  will  finally  determine  the  rate  of  growth 
which  may  be  gained  by  judicious  planting  or  cutting,  to- 
gether with  the  acreage,  and  report  on  the  continuous  supply 
of  timber  which  may  be  expected  from  the  area,  to  help  run 
the  industry  and  to  serve  the  state. 

After  the  forester  comes  the  forest  engineer,  who  works 
out  the  cheapest  and  most  efficient  manner  of  building  roads, 
cutting  timber,  driving  streams,  railroading,  and  using  modern 
instruments  such  as  steam,  dynamite,  and  telephones.  As  an 
instance  of  this,  I  cite  the  improved  driving  of  streams,  which 
used  to  be  done  in  a  more  or  less  haphazard  manner. 

Then  comes  the  district  manager,  who  creates  a  staff  of 
helpers  to  carry  out  the  work;  he  contracts  part  of  it  to 
jobbers,  purchases  or  sells,  audits  reports  and  accounting, 
and  is  the  head  of  the  operating. 

He  calls  to  his  assistance  hi  the  staff  an  inspector,  who  saves 
waste  in  cutting,  and  reports  weekly  on  special  blanks;  a 
head  sealer,  who  corrects  mistakes  in  scaling  and  marking; 
a  telephone  man  to  keep  up  the  means  of  communication;  a 
cost  accountant,  who  saves  waste  by  installing  a  minute  but 
simple  set  of  camp  and  storehouse  books,  and  figures  out  and 
returns  prompt  and  reliable  data  on  every  operation.  I  have 
here  a  camp  book  and  some  other  data  which  it  might  be 
interesting  for  you  to  examine  after  the  meeting.  He  em- 
ploys a  machinery  expert  who  sets  up  and  looks  after  the 
logging  engines,  the  steam  towboats  and  log  haulers;  a 
traffic  manager,  who  prearranges  for  the  securing  of  good  car 
service  from  the  railroads;  a  purchasing  agent,  who  saves  by 
combining  orders,  watching  markets,  and  obtaining  discounts; 
a  veterinary,  who  saves  by  taking  charge  of  the  horses;  and 
a  statistician,  who  gathers  and  tabulates  information  in  a 
logical  way  for  guidance  in  the  future. 

Each  of  these  concentrates  on  some  detail  and  in  the  end 
saves  more  than  his  cost,  and  all  by  cooperation  form  an 
effective  working  body. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  .     271 

In  the  direction  and  organization  of  this  staff,  I  wish  to 
present  to  you  a  system  as  shown  by  this  chart  which  we  have 
worked  out  on  the  side  of  the  management  wholly.  The 
labor  side  of  Scientific  Management  which  calls  for  task-setting 
and  a  bonus  we  have  not  taken  up  as  yet,  because  we  are 
uncertain  about  its  advantages.  Whether  there  is  any 
analogy  between  the  shop  and  the  camp  in  the  woods  is  a 
question.  Whether  the  elements  of  routine,  immobility,  con- 
tinuity of  service  and  steadiness  of  life  which  characterize 
the  shop  man  and  enable  the  shop  manager  to  train  him  to  a 
fine  point,  are  not  all  lacking  in  the  timber  jack,  is  a  question. 
The  jack  is  constantly  meeting  emergencies,  is  isolated  and 
therefore  hard  to  watch  or  guide,  is  dependent  in  his  work  on 
weather  conditions  and  is  commonly  a  floating,  irresponsible 
character.  In  a  certain  way,  we  approximate  the  bonus 
system  by  determining  the  amount  of  pay  at  the  close  of  a 
season,  or  operation,  by  the  individual  ability  and  energy 
shown  by  each  man,  as  it  appears  to  the  boss;  and  the  boss, 
in  turn,  is  rewarded  by  the  district  manager.  For  this  reason, 
they  are  not  so  likely  to  go  slow.  I  doubt  whether  it  is  always 
best  to  set  wages  by  the  result  of  processes,  or  whether  tangible 
results  always  represent  the  true  value  received  from  service. 
The  human  and  psychological  side  often  plays  strange  pranks 
with  logic,  and  justice  should  be  tempered  with  mercy. 

This  chart  for  organizing  and  instructing  the  staff  is  based 
on  three  lines  of  thought,  which  follow  each  other  in  natural 
sequence  in  considering  any  enterprise: 

First,  forming  a  plan  of  what  is  to  be  done. 

Second,  keeping  the  records  of  the  carrying  out  of  that 
plan. 

Third,  keeping  the  experience  and  data  gathered  from  it. 
These,  with  imagination,  usually  lead  to  the  forming  of 
another  plan. 

We  have  called  these  the  Budget,  the  Accounting  and 
the  Statistic.  A  book  is  kept  for.  each  which  contains  a 
skeleton  outline  of  the  data  in  every  department  and  every 
operation,  for  the  advice  and  guidance  of  the  general  manager 


272  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

and  those  of  his  staff  who  are  particularly  interested  in 
any  department  or  operation.  The  staff  consists  of  district 
managers,  accountants,  forester,  inspectors,  sealers,  engi- 
neers, electricians,  traffic  manager,  purchasing  agents,  and 
statisticians. 

The  first  of  the  three  books  is  the  Budget.  It  is  routed 
down  through  the  staff  at  certain  times  and  seasons  for  their 
suggestions  thereon,  and  should  tend  to  a  consensus  of  judg- 
ment of  all  those  particularly  interested  in  work  which  is  to 
be  undertaken.  The  second,  the  Accounting  book,  and  the 
third,  the  Statistic  book,  are  kept  in  the  general  office,  and 
necessary  reports  and  extracts  from  them  are  sent  out  to  the 
members  of  the  staff  by  the  statistician,  whenever  needed. 

The  object  of  the  Budget  is  to  reduce  loose  plans  or  opinions 
to  a  scientific  basis,  and  will  result  in  saving  due  to  the  adjust- 
ments perfected  between  different  parts  of  the  business;  the 
drawing  together  of  the  staff  hi  united  effort,  creating  esprit 
de  corps. 

The  accounting  system  should  gather  absolutely  accurate, 
far-reaching  and  prompt  reports,  so  that  the  general  man- 
ager can  have  at  least  once  a  month  the  cost  of  every  detail, 
however  small. 

Statistics  should  be  gathered  at  all  times,  and  all  reports 
and  records  should  be  filed  away  and  condensed  so  as  to  be 
easy  of  access. 

In  working  out  a  skeleton  plan  of  departments  and  corpora- 
tions under  three  heads,  we  have  separated  for  convenience 
different  districts,  and  under  each  oUstrict  we  have  divided 
the  work  into  logging,  driving,  and  the  purchase  of  wood. 
Under  logging,  after  making  out  a  general  plan,  we  have 
specifically  named  forestry,  which  divides  itself  into  the  cutting 
method  to  be  pursued;  inspection  of  cutting  and  scale;  pro- 
tection of  woodland  from  fire;  wind  throw  or  insect  kill; 
estimating;  surveying  and  mapping.  Also  under  logging  we 
have  named  the  establishment  of  storehouses;  the  establish- 
ment of  camps  —  both  company  and  jobbers' ;  the  building 
of  railroads  and  their  operation;  the  purchase  and  care  of 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  273 

horses;  construction  of  telephone  lines;  insurance  of  buildings 
and  other  property;  the  sale  of  stumpage;  rents  and  leases, 
and  carrying  on  of  farms  and  payment  of  taxes. 

Under  driving,  after  making  out  a  general  plan,  we  have 
named  specific  drives;  storehouses  as  serving  drives;  the 
carrying  on  of  driving  corporations;  the  making  of  stream 
improvements;  the  engineering  problems  concerning  tow- 
boats  and  launches. 

Under  the  purchase  of  wood,  after  making  out  a  general 
plan,  we  have  specified  the  requirements  of  mills;  the  sources 
of  railroad  supply;  instructions  to  purchasing  agents;  traffic 
requirements;  the  handling  of  plants  required;  and  offices 
maintained. 

A  general  formula  carries  suggestions  for  answers  under  all 
of  the  headings  above  in  every  budget  as  to,  first,  place; 
second,  time;  third,  amount  and  kind;  fourth,  labor;  fifth, 
equipment;  sixth,  measurement;  seventh,  conditions;  eighth, 
price  and  payment;  ninth,  accessories;  tenth,  accounting 
and  costs.  By  changing  these  a  little  to  suit  the  different 
kinds  of  business,  they  seem  to  cover  the  ground  and  give 
the  suggestions  which  will  allow  the  particular  staff  officer 
to  answer  questions  in  his  department. 

In  the  accounting  division  complete  records  are  kept  to 
correspond  with  the  various  operations  named  above,  simple 
as  possible  for  the  man  in  the  field,  and  in  the  nature  of 
records  to  be  sent  to  the  main  office  to  be  combined  into  a 
double-entry  system. 

In  the  statistical  division  data  are  collected  as  fast  as 
possible  under  the  heads  of  the  operations  named. 

The  above  general  plan  has  been  made  to  suit  the  par- 
ticular needs  of  our  business,  and  should  be  modified  and 
added  to  in  many  ways  to  meet  other  conditions.  We  are 
glad  to  present  for  your  consideration  any  suggestions  it 
may  contain. 

I  will  call  on  Mr.  Witherell,  who  has  been  in  Scientific 
Management  work  in  the  South,  to  tell  us  a  little  of  his 
experience  there. 


274  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

MR.  WITHERELL:  As  far  as  I  know  I  am  one  of  the  first 
men,  with  training  along  what  might  be  called  industrial 
engineering  lines,  to  go  into  the  lumber  business.  Although 
I  came  from  Massachusetts,  almost  all  of  my  work  has 
been  in  the  southern  states,  in  connection  with  several  of 
the  larger  operations  in  the  long-leaf  yellow  pine  district. 
I  have  not  taken  up  to  any  great  extent  the  accounting  end 
of  the  woods  and  mill  operations. 

One  of  the  larger  plants,  at  which  I  stayed  for  some  time, 
worked  twelve  months  in  the  year,  as  is  the  custom  in  the 
South,  keeping  the  woods  and  mill  operations  going  simul- 
taneously. In  fact,  everybody  in  that  region  felt  that  it  was 
a  crime  to  shut  a  mill  down  for  even  fifteen  minutes,  and  I 
believe  this  mill  had  not  shut  down  more  than  a  day  in  three 
or  four  years. 

I  took  up  the  problems  of  improving  the  efficiency  of  the 
woods  operations  along  the  following  lines:  sawing,  skidding, 
track-laying,  grading  and  transportation  to  the  mill. 

When  I  came  to  this  plant,  I  found,  somewhat  to  my  sur- 
prise, that  three-fourths  of  the  men  were  negroes.  Very  few 
whites  in  the  South  are  efficient  as  working-men,  except  pos- 
sibly as  sawyers.  However,  the  negroes  make  good  workmen 
when  well  trained. 

I  found  that  most  of  the  trees  were  cut  off  so  that  the 
stumps  were  from  twenty  to  thirty-six  inches  above  the 
ground.  The  men  were  paid  on  the  piece-rate  basis,  thirty- 
five  cents  per  M,  and  would  not  cut  any  lower,  as  a  general 
average,  than  between  twenty  to  thirty-six  inches  above  the 
ground.  We  noticed  that  75  per  cent  of  the  stumps,  which 
had  an  average  diameter  of  twenty  inches,  were  almost  a 
clear  sap  grade,  which  would  sell  in  foreign  markets  for 
from  $25  to  $40  per  M.  Such  a  stump  is  full  of  pitch 
and  is  very  hard  to  cut  down,  due  to  the  gumming  of  the 
saw.  We  tried  various  experiments,  using  a  stop-watch  to 
find  out  how  long  it  took  to  cut  down  respectively  a  long- 
leaf  and  a  short-leaf  pine  tree.  We  found  that  by  leaving 
a  ten-inch  or  twelve-inch  stump,  we  could  get  about  80  per 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  275 

cent  as  much  work  out  of  the  men  as  by  leaving  a  thirty-inch 
stump. 

In  order  to  make  it  worth  while  for  the  men,  we  raised  the 
price  to  forty-five  cents  per  M,  and  required  them  to  leave 
an  average  stump  height  of  not  more  than  ten  niches.  We 
had  about  fifty  crews  of  men,  the  average  crew  not  working 
more  than  seven  hours  a  day.  Occasionally  the  men  would 
work  eight  hours,  but  usually  six  or  seven  hours  of  hard 
work  would  use  up  a  man's  energy,  and  the  men  would  rest 
the  remainder  of  the  time.  We  found  that  the  men  could  not 
do  more  work,  but  that  they  would  cut  the  trees  lower  if  we 
compensated  them  for  it.  We  took  an  additional  cent  per 
M,  and  made  it  into  premiums,  giving  a  premium  of  $25 
per  month  to  the  best  crew,  to  the  next  $20  per  month,  to 
the  next  best  $10,  the  next  $5;  that  is,  the  men  leaving  the 
lowest  stumps,  the  men  who  were  really  doing  the  best  work 
for  the  company,  received  the  premiums.  The  best  crews 
averaged  between  fifty  and  fifty-five  cents  per  M,  the  pre- 
miums actually  making  a  difference  of  from  twelve  to  fifteen 
cents  per  M.  Meanwhile,  the  company  was  getting  from 
one  to  two  feet  of  the  tree  that  could  be  cut  up  and  sold 
for  $30  to  $35  per  M.  I  do  not  remember  just  now  how 
much  the  company  got  out  of  it,  but  I  think  the  ratio  was 
about  two  or  three  to  one,  and  everybody  was  satisfied. 
Much  to  my  surprise,  some  of  the  best  men  tried  to  cut  trees 
a  few  inches  from  the  ground,  because  they  were  so  anxious 
to  receive  that  additional  $25  per  month.  We  usually  found 
that  the  whites  were  better  sawyers  than  the  negroes.  In  this 
plant  the  company  furnished  two  and  four-cutter  saws,  and 
we  obtained  very  good  results. 

With  regard  to  skidding,  the  company,  only  about  a  year 
before  I  came,  used  the  old  methods,  that  is,  drawing  the 
logs  to  the  track  by  oxen  and  mules.  Shortly  before  I  came 
they  bought  a  skidder,  something  like  a  Clyde,  but  even  more 
effective.  There  were  two  separate  cars;  the  front  car  being 
an  "A"  frame  with  four  pulleys  on  the  top.  As  soon  as 
this  car  was  set  up,  it  was  braced  at  four  points  with  ropes 


276  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

which  were  carried  out  about  200  to  300  feet  and  fastened 
to  stumps  or  trees.  On  another  car  were  two  double-drum 
hoisting  engines,  each  about  40  horse-power,  and  a  100  horse- 
power boiler.  Behind  this  car  was  the  fuel  car  with  wood 
and  water.  This  expensive  layout,  costing  about  $10,000, 
required  a  fireman,  tallyman,  water-boy,  four  engineers  and 
four  crews.  There  were  four  steel  ropes,  each  covering  a 
separate  area  and  needing  three  men  to  operate.  This 
machine  was  quite  efficient,  and  would  rapidly  handle  the 
logs  near  the  track.  The  maximum  rate  of  speed  of  the  ma- 
chine for  short  intervals  was  between  2,000  and  3,000  logs  per 
week,  and  was  obtained  by  getting  the  men  to  work  together 
and  not  waste  time.  In  bad  country,  the  skidder  would 
often  not  get  in  more  than  1,000  logs  a  week. 

QUESTION:  Did  you  have  to  build  a  railroad? 

MR.  WITHERELL:  It  was  not  much  of  a  railroad,  just 
enough  so  that  the  cars  would  stay  on  the  track.  We  laid 
out  the  tracks  from  1,000  to  2,000  feet  apart;  we  tried  to 
keep  the  skidding  distance  not  more  than  600  feet. 

We  studied  the  skidder  pretty  carefully,  and  determined 
that  if  the  men  were  properly  trained  they  ought  to  be  able 
to  raise  the  average  rate  from  500  to  750  logs  per  day.  We 
called  750  logs  per  day  100  per  cent  efficiency;  and  the  whole 
skidder  crew  would  get  no  bonus  at  550  and  at  half-way,  or 
625  logs  per  day,  a  bonus  of  10  per  cent.  The  great  losses 
of  time  seemed  to  be  in  the  lack  of  coordination.  The  men 
putting  the  chain  or  hooks  on  the  log  would  not  be  careful 
in  their  work  and  the  chain  might  slip  off,  or  they  might  put 
the  cable  at  about  the  center  of  a  log  (causing  a  tie-up 
among  trees).  The  boy  driving  the  mule  very  often  would 
waste  25  per  cent  to  30  per  cent  of  the  time.  He  might  be 
off  the  mule  and  not  attending  to  business.  We  made  the 
mule-boys  try  to  keep  not  more  than  100  feet  away  from  the 
log  and  try  to  get  to  the  skidder  as  soon  as  the  men  took 
the  chain  off  the  log.  Then  the  mule  would  be  ready  to  take 
the  clamps  and  rope  back.  We  found  it  very  easy,  by  watch- 
ing various  movements  and  timing  them,  to  save  from  20  per 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  277 

cent  to  30  per  cent  of  the  time  right  at  the  start.  As  I 
remember,  gang  on  line  one  was  against  gang  on  line  two, 
and  gang  on  three  against  gang  on  four.  We  divided  up  $5 
a  week  to  the  gang  of  three  men  which  had  done  the  best 
work;  not  on  a  weekly  basis,  but  on  a  monthly  basis,  thus 
making  it  worth  while  for  the  men  to  keep  at  work  steadily 
in  order  to  regularly  receive  the  extra  compensation. 

Later  on,  we  found  that  these  large  machines  were  quite 
expensive  and  were  exceedingly  hard  to  move.  They  were 
not  economical  with  a  twenty-man  crew  when  we  got  into  a 
swamp.  So  a  small  skidder  on  skids  was  constructed  that 
could  be  used  in  swampy  country.  We  could  take  the  whole 
machine  —  consisting  of  a  boiler  and  two  line  drums  —  load 
it  on  a  flat  car,  skid  it  to  the  ground  and  place  it  by  mules 
where  we  desired.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  wheels 
were  not  of  any  value,  any  more  than  in  the  swamps  of  Louisi- 
ana and  Mississippi,  where  most  of  the  country  is  under  water 
a  good  part  of  the  year. 

In  taking  up  the  loading  we  had  another  interesting  prob- 
lem. The  men  who  did  this  work  were  very  different  in 
temperament  and  ability.  The  man  in  charge  of  the  loader 
seemed  to  have  the  hardest  work  in  the  woods  operation.  In 
handling  his  loading  machine,  the  loader  would  have  under 
him  a  top  loader  on  the  car,  another  man  hooking  the  logs, 
and  the  engineer  and  fireman  on  the  locomotive.  The 
average  log  car  held  about  twenty  logs.  The  usual  scheme 
of  operating  had  been  to  let  the  boss  loader  load  a  certain 
number  of  cars  a  day.  After  study  we  decided,  however, 
that  something  could  be  saved  on  this  operation.  When  one 
of  the  loaders  left  the  company's  employ,  we  started  out  with 
the  other  two  loading  crews.  We  told  them  that  a  loading 
crew  cost  $10  a  day.  We  said,  "If  the  two  crews  can  do  as 
much  as  three  by  attending  to  business,  we  will  split  up 
between  the  two  $5  a  day."  On  some  days  we  had  to  get 
out  the  third  loader,  and  load  a  few  cars  back  in  the  woods, 
but  the  woods  operations  got  on  pretty  well  with  two  loaders 
working  about  twenty  days  in  the  month. 


278  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Next  we  took  up  track  building.  We  had  with  us  a  man 
who  had  been  with  the  Southern  Railway  for  years,  and  his 
rail-laying  average  had  been  about  six  rails  per  man  per  day 
with  a  twenty-man  crew  and  a  train.  Six  rails  per  man  was 
the  past  year's  record.  We  studied  his  work  very  carefully 
and  were  surprised  to  find  out  how  much  time  he  lost.  He 
would  frequently  lose  anywhere  from  thirty  seconds  to  a 
minute  per  rail  by  not  having  the  rail  car  in  shape.  Eight 
men  laid  four  rails,  then  six  spiked  down  while  the  rest  of  the 
crew  were  carrying  the  ties  forward.  We  had  a  man  stay 
at  the  rail  car  who  had  nothing  to  do  but  get  the  rails  ready. 
It  saved  regularly  about  thirty  seconds  to  a  rail.  The  form 
of  procedure  was  to  put  down  about  five  rails,  the  men  walk- 
ing back  and  forth  five  times,  and  then  spike  down.  We  could 
not  improve  this  operation  very  much,  but  we  did  get  the 
men  in  the  habit  of  taking  a  rail  off  the  car,  dropping  it  and 
coming  right  back.  In  putting  the  rail  in  place,  we  often 
found  we  lost  thirty  seconds  to  a  minute  on  account  of  tight 
bolts.  Once  in  a  while  the  rail  would  slip  in  all  right;  if  it 
didn't  there  was  a  minute's  delay.  We  overcame  this  trouble 
by  loosening  the  bolts  before  the  rails  were  slid  in  place.  We 
also  found  we  lost  time  on  the  ties  in  laying  on  the  grade; 
also  in  keeping  the  men  driving  spikes  up  to  maximum  effi- 
ciency. We  actually  increased  the  output  from  six  to  about 
eleven  rails  per  man  per  day  in  about  three  weeks.  Later 
a  better  rail  car  was  designed.  As  soon  as  it  gets  in  service, 
I  expect  them  to  come  up  to  about  twelve  rails  per  man  per 
day.  Though  the  men  did  not  work  as  hard  as  before,  the 
work  went  along  nearly  twice  as  fast.  We  gave  the  men  a 
bonus  of  20  per  cent  if  they  got  up  to  ten  and  a  half  rails 
per  man  per  day,  and  nothing  at  about  seven.  The  fore- 
man was  so  interested  that  he  bought  a  stop-watch,  and 
watched  his  crew  closely;  so  far  as  I  know,  he  has  been  able 
to  keep  up  this  rate.  We  have  increased  in  about  the  same 
proportion  the  taking  up  of  track,  taking  up  about  eleven 
rails  per  man  per  day  by  close  organization  and  cooperation. 

In  the  transportation  of  logs  to  the  mill  the  crews  were 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  279 

working  pretty  efficiently  and  we  did  not  put  them  on  the 
bonus.  As  soon  as  we  got  the  logs  into  the  mill  they  were 
taken  up  to  the  saws.  One  of  the  first  points  we  noticed  was 
that  the  saws  were  changed  twice  a  day,  each  saw  running 
five  hours.  We  had  them  changed  five  times  a  day  and  got 
much  better  results.  The  sawyers  were  working  very  effi- 
ciently in  that  plant,  and  we  were  afraid  if  we  put  them  on  a 
bonus  they  would  try  to  speed  up  and  lower  the  quality  of 
the  lumber;  so  we  did  not  give  them  a  bonus  but  raised  their 
wages  slightly  to  compensate. 

I  found  about  twenty-five  or  thirty  men,  as  I  remember, 
on  the  sorting  platform,  sorting  into  fifteen  or  twenty  grades. 
More  than  half  of  these  grades  went  to  foreign  ports.  The 
men  sorting  were  very  inefficient,  and  we  found  that  we 
could  cut  them  down  to  about  eighteen.  By  paying  them  a 
slight  bonus  we  got  pretty  good  results. 

The  transportation  problem  was  not  a  very  bad  one,  but 
they  had  a  flexible  system,  with  two-wheel  bogies,  which 
could  not  be  greatly  improved.  We  found  that  they  worked 
the  horses  and  mules  about  to  the  limit.  We  found  also  that 
they  loaded  with  about  200  to  400  feet,  while  some  of  the 
bogies  had  a  capacity  of  about  1,000  feet.  At  any  rate,  we 
loaded  the  bogies  up  to  about  what  they  could  stand  and 
we  were  obliged,  as  I  remember,  to  dispense  with  something 
like  one-third  of  our  teams. 

In  carrying  the  lumber  to  the  kilns  we  had  six  kilns  and 
five  crews.  As  I  remember,  the  cars  going  through  the  kilns 
carried  about  4,000  feet.  The  men  had  their  schedule  of 
some  six  cars  a  day.  We  put  them  on  a  rate  of  eight  with 
a  bonus  of  20  per  cent.  They  came  up  to  this  rate  and 
one  crew  was  laid  off. 

We  tried  the  same  thing  in  unloading  the  kiln  cars  and 
found  it  worked  well.  The  men  were  not  working  anywhere 
near  to  their  full  efficiency,  and  if  they  wanted  to  take  a  few 
hours  off  they  would  hustle.  The  average  rate  was  about 
six  cars  per  two-man  crew  per  day.  We  made  a  standard 
of  about  nine  cars  with  a  20  per  cent  bonus,  and  the  men 


280  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

got  after  it.  It  may  surprise  you  to  know  that  negroes  will 
go  after  a  bonus.  Most  of  these  men  of  whom  I  am  speaking 
are  white;  they  worked  more  intelligently  than  negroes. 

In  the  planing-mill  we  found  a  good  many  machines  of  the 
older  types.  A  good  many  were  running  at  the  rate  of  50, 
75  and  100  feet  per  minute.  We  found  the  slow  rate  at 
which  the  material  went  through  the  planers  was  due  to 
the  way  the  men  were  running  the  machines.  We  increased 
our  machines  up  to  all  they  could  stand,  and  that  company 
will  put  in  new  machines  which  will  run  at  the  rate  of  175 
feet  per  minute. 

In  the  loading  of  the  cars  for  final  shipment,  we  found  that 
the  men  worked  in  the  same  way  they  worked  in  the  other 
departments,  that  is,  only  about  half  a  day,  at  a  slow  rate. 
I  do  not  remember  now  about  the  average  rate,  but  we 
increased  it  about  40  per  cent,  and  gave  the  men  about 
20  per  cent  more  money  as  a  bonus. 

There  was  a  saving  in  the  cost  of  operations  all  along  the 
line,  a  few  cents  in  each  operation;  and,  as  I  remember,  the 
total  saving  amounted  to  something  like  fifty  cents  per  M. 
in  the  woods  and  mill.  This  is  not  a  large  amount,  but 
the  plant  is  probably  one  of  the  best-operated  properties  in 
the  South.  The  plant  was  not  what  would  be  termed 
modern,  but  was  making  money  and  had  a  regular  output. 

MR.  BROWN:  We  have  with  us  Mr.  Bryant,  who  has 
charge  of  the  Lumbering  Department  at  Yale,  and  I  think  we 
should  all  be  very  glad  if  he  would  talk  to  us  for  a  few  minutes. 

MR.  BRYANT:  I  came  to  learn  something  and  not  to  talk. 
In  fact,  I  don't  know  so  much  about  your  eastern  plants  as  I 
do  about  the  southern.  Mr.  WitherelPs  talk  was  very  inter- 
esting to  me.  It  seems  to  me  that  where  an  improvement 
can  be  made  in  our  logging  operations,  very  frequently  is  in 
planning  operations  ahead.  In  some  parts  of  the  South, 
especially  in  the  rough  regions,  it  would  be  well  if  the 
manager  would  have  a  topographical  map  of  his  property 
to  show  what  most  of  his  woodsmen  have  ahead  of  them. 
When  these  men  leave  you,  you  have  nothing  to  say  to  them 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  281 

afterwards,  and  sometimes  they  have  several  years*  work  to 
do.  The  railroads  in  their  operations  lay  out  their  work  in 
advance,  and  I  think  it  applicable  to  all  kinds  of  business. 
Because  the  people  in  the  South  do  so  much  logging,  it  is 
necessary  to  develop  their  roads;  the  heavy  logging  teams 
tear  up  the  roads  unless  they  have  been  laid  out  in  a  proper 
manner. 

There  is  also  another  thing  in  which  improvement  could 
be  made.  When  you  are  making  a  topographical  map,  you 
could  check  up  and  figure  out  the  best  scheme  of  working  in 
that  part  of  the  country. 

In  connection  with  sawing,  it  seems  the  way  to  handle 
sawyers  in  the  mill  is  to  pay  them  on  both  quality  and  quan- 
tity of  lumber  produced.  In  other  words,  pay  the  sawyer, 
the  edger  and  the  trimmer  by  the  piece.  Put  a  premium  on 
high-grade  work;  give  them  a  small  price  for  producing  a 
low  grade.  The  edger  and  trimmer  should  not  keep  track 
of  what  they  do  themselves.  Have  some  one  on  each  side  of 
the  mill  to  tally  up  what  the  others  do.  I  know  in  one  case 
they  increased  the  quality  of  their  labor  10  per  cent,  and 
everybody  was  satisfied,  —  better  pleased  than  they  were 
before.  The  sawyers  were  afraid  of  it  hi  the  first  place,  but 
it  worked  out.  Some  days  they  lose  and  some  days  they 
make  money,  but  the  average  is  better.  The  double  standard 
kept  every  man  in  the  mill  on  the  jump.  The  company  figures 
they  average  10  per  cent  more  out  of  it.  They  seldom  push 
their  men  and  the  sawyers  are  better  satisfied. 

QUESTION:  I  should  like  to  ask  if  any  one  here  has 
taken  up  the  question  of  rations  for  animals  in  logging 
camps.  I  should  like  to  hear  what  different  people  feed,  — 
the  different  rations. 

ANSWER:  I  understand  that  molasses  mixed  in  the  grain 
is  very  effective,  and  we  get  a  wheat  that  costs  a  little  less 
than  other  grain,  which  is  much  used  in  the  South. 

MR.  BROWN:  We  found  that  a  great  many  of  our  horses 
had  been  overfed.  We  wanted  to  do  the  best  for  our  horses 
and  put  more  grain  into  the  bin  than  was  necessary,  so  a 


282  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

good  many  of  them  died;  we  afterwards  got  a  few  feeders, 
men  whose  special  duty  it  was  to  feed  a  large  number  of  horses 
and  take  care  of  them  at  the  same  time,  and  in  that  way 
increased  the  worth  and  health  of  the  horses.  A  veterinary 
goes  about  attending  the  horses  in  the  forest  camps. 

QUESTION:  How  small  a  number  of  horses  does  it  require 
a  feeder  for? 

ANSWER:  Thirty  up. 

QUESTION:  Not  worth  while  with  less  than  thirty? 

ANSWER:  No. 

MR.  BROWN:  We  should  like  to  hear  from  Mr.  George  A. 
Chedel,  Superintendent  of  the  Connecticut  River  Division  of 
the  Champlain  Realty  Company. 

MR.  CHEDEL:  I  can  tell  you  about  the  system  used  by 
the  International  Paper  Company,  through  its  subsidiary  and 
operating  companies,  in  the  lumbering  operations. 

In  the  management  of  lumbering  operations,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  have  an  organization,  in  order  that  every  care  may  be 
taken  first  of  all  to  conserve  the  timber-lands  themselves, 
that  timber  may  be  growing  on  the  lands  after  the  larger 
growth  has  been  taken  off,  and  to  make  it  a  profitable  invest- 
ment. In  our  system  of  management  of  lumbering  operations, 
we  first  of  all  make  a  suitable  main  road  onto  the  land  which 
is  to  be  operated.  Only  such  timber  should  be  used  in  the 
construction  of  roads  and  bridges  as  is  of  little  value  for 
lumber.  After  suitable  roads  are  constructed,  a  camp  and 
barn  are  necessary.  A  camp  sufficient  to  accomodate  forty 
men  and  a  barn  which  will  accomodate  twelve  horses  are 
the  thing. 

Trees  which  are  to  be  cut  should  be  marked  so  that  only 
such  trees  may  be  cut  as,  judging  from  their  age,  size  and 
general  appearance,  have  reached  their  growth.  Usually,  a 
twelve-inch  diameter  limit,  two  feet  from  the  ground,  is  con- 
sidered the  right  size,  and  anything  under  is  to  be  left  standing, 
unless  it  is  an  exposed  location  where  there  is  a  solid  growth. 
It  is  then  sometimes  best  to  cut  the  entire  growth,  because 
if  part  of  the  growth  is  cut  the  remainder  very  frequently 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  283 

blows  down.  When  this  is  done  it  is  practical,  in  a  year  or 
two  after  the  timber  has  all  been  cut,  to  replant  the  land 
with  nursery-grown  stock,  in  either  pine  or  spruce.  Moun- 
tainous land,  as  a  rule,  produces  spruce  better  than  pine. 
Land  that  has  produced  spruce,  if  necessary  to  be  replanted, 
should  be  planted  in  spruce.  Norway  Spruce  under  these 
conditions  should  be  planted  on  account  of  its  faster  growth 
than  the  Red  Spruce  which  grows  naturally  in  this  country. 

After  the  timber  has  been  cut  and  yarded,  it  is  necessary 
to  haul  it  to  the  mill  or  river  bank  in  the  cheapest  possible 
way.  This  may  be  done  in  two  ways.  By  two  or  four 
horses  in  a  team,  on  two  sleds,  or,  if  the  haul  is  a  long  one  and 
the  grade  heavy,  it  may  be  desirable  to  use  a  traction  engine, 
a  very  practical  way  where  large  quantities  of  logs  are  to  be 
hauled  over  one  road  for  a  long  distance.  About  the  same 
kind  of  road  has  to  be  built  for  a  traction  engine  as  for  a 
road  operated  by  team.  In  all  work  in  cutting  and  hauling 
to  the  mill  or  stream,  great  care  must  be  used  in  looking  after 
details,  and  no  logs  should  be  left  in  the  woods  which  can 
possibly  be  used  for  pulp  or  lumber.  Logs  should  be  cut  into 
the  tops  to  a  diameter  of  five  inches  in  spruce,  pine  or  hem- 
lock. This  size  log  can  be  used  at  the  present  time  for  either 
pulp-wood  or  lumber. 

Li  this  way  there  is  less  waste  left  on  the  ground  and  much 
less  danger  from  fire.  Where  timber  is  of  mixed  growth  and 
the  cutting  is  only  spruce  and  hemlock,  and  hardwood  is  left 
to  protect  the  remaining  growth,  it  is  usually  the  best  way 
to  cut  logs  either  twelve,  fourteen  or  sixteen  feet  in  length. 
Logs  of  this  length  can  be  hauled  out  onto  the  road  with  less 
damage  to  the  remaining  growth  than  timber  cut  in  longer 
lengths.  Where  the  cutting  is  done  for  mill  purposes,  it  is 
frequently  necessary  to  cut  the  timber  around  forty  to  fifty 
feet  long.  Where  such  cutting  is  done  they  practically  take 
the  entire  growth,  and  the  land  after  such  operating  is  of 
very  little  value,  for  growth,  for  a  long  term  of  years.  In  our 
own  cuttings,  our  logs  are  cut  in  short  lengths  to  preserve 
remaining  growth. 


284  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

In  each  camp  is  a  foreman,  and  usually  in  a  camp  of  forty 
to  fifty  men,  a  clerk,  who  keeps  the  time  of  the  men  and 
does  any  necessary  errands  outside.  The  men  are  all  hired 
by  the  foreman  in  charge  of  each  camp  and  are  graded,  in 
wages,  according  to  their  capacity  and  skill  in  their  work. 
The  food  supply  for  the  camps  is  an  important  part,  and 
care  must  be  exercised  that  food  of  good  quality  shall  be 
furnished  in  order  to  keep  the  men  contented  and  satisfied; 
a  satisfied  stomach  is  just  as  necessary  in  the  lumber  camp 
as  in  the  home.  That  the  men  may  have  suitable  care 
in  sickness,  it  is  frequently  desirable  to  have  them  cared  for 
by  some  hospital.  Under  these  conditions,  when  men  are 
sick,  they  can  have  proper  care.  In  a  lumber  camp  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  take  care  of  men  who  are  sick,  and,  if 
it  is  attempted,  it  usually  results  in  a  large  number  of  the 
men  leaving.  So  we  find  that  much  the  best  way  is  to  take 
them  away  to  a  hospital  where  they  can  be  cared  for. 

The  methods  used  by  the  larger  companies  in  getting  their 
logs  to  destination,  whether  by  driving  them  in  the  streams 
or  by  a  railroad,  are  practically  the  same.  If  they  are  driven, 
it  means  that  the  logs  must  be  driven  when  the  snow  is  melt- 
ing in  the  early  spring,  when  there  is  a  large  flow  of  water, 
and  this  means  long  days  and  rugged  work  while  the  work  is 
being  done.  In  this  kind  of  work  the  men  work  fourteen 
hours,  have  four  meals  per  day  and  are  paid  from  $2  to 
$3  per  day  and  boarded,  according  to  their  ability  and  skill 
in  the  work.  If  the  delivery  to  destination  is  to  be  made 
by  a  logging  railroad  it  is  practical  to  haul  the  logs  during 
the  summer  months,  if  the  danger  from  setting  fire  to  the 
forests  can  be  eliminated  in  the  dry  season.  The  only  safe 
way  to  do  this  is  to  maintain  an  effective  patrol. 

In  accounting  for  the  average  operation,  I  should  say  the  fol- 
lowing general  and  special  accounts  would  cover  the  situation: 

Camp  Account,  to  which  would  be  charged  all  the  labor 
supplies  and  materials  used  in  the  camps. 

Live  Stocky  to  which  would  be  charged  payments  for  live 
stock  and  veterinary  expenses. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  285 

Personal  Property,  to  which  would  be  charged  all  expenses 
pertaining  to  sleds,  chains,  wagons,  logging  tools  and  camp 
equipage. 

Headquarters.  This  would  cover  expense  which  could  not 
at  the  time  be  charged  directly  to  the  camp  account  and 
would  be  necessary  only  where  you  were  running  several 
camps  and  must  have  a  headquarters  camp.  To  this  account 
you  would  charge,  if  you  did  any  farming,  the  expense  of 
the  farm  work,  and  credit  the  account  with  the  farm  produce 
as  delivered  to  the  camps. 

Barn  Account,  to  which  you  would  charge  the  cost  of  keep- 
ing and  care  of  your  teams,  and  also  your  horses  during  that 
part  of  the  year  when  they  were  not  being  used  in  the  camps. 

Log  Expense  Account  would  cover  the  supervision  of  the 
operations  by  your  walking-boss,  scaling  the  logs,  marking 
the  trees  for  cutting  and  other  similar  expenses. 

Contractors'  Account.  To  this  account  would  be  charged 
the  payments  to  contractors  for  delivering  logs. 

Log  Purchases  would  cover  the  amount  for  logs  purchased. 

Driving  Expense  would  cover  the  cost  of  driving,  or  if  you 
wished,  you  could  sub-divide  the  account  to  show  the  cost  of 
the  labor  and  the  expenses  separately. 

Log  Sales.  To  this  account  would  be  credited  all  sales  of 
logs  and  also  the  logs  delivered  at  your  mill. 

Office  Expense.  This  account  covers  expenses  of  woods 
office. 

Log  Account.  This  would  be  a  general  account  into  which 
the  other  operating  accounts  would  be  closed  at  the  end  of 
the  season. 

To  the  above  general  accounts  you  might  add  a  few  special 
accounts. 

Road  Account.  To  this  account  you  might  charge  the  cost 
of  roads  which  will  accomodate  more  than  one  season's  opera- 
tions, and  charge  to  each  season  its  proportionate  share. 

Camp  Construction.  This  would  cover  the  cost  of  camps 
and  be  closed  in  the  same  way  as  your  Road  Account. 

Land  Account.    This  would  cover  the  cost  of  your  land. 


286  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Timber-land  Expense.  This  would  cover  supervision  of 
the  land,  surveying,  fire  protection  and,  if  you  do  not  wish 
to  run  a  separate  account,  the  taxes. 

Stumpage  Account.  This  account  would  be  credited  with 
all  stumpage  cut  or  sold  and  amounts  collected  for  rentals,  etc. 

General  Expense.  This  account  would  cover  the  home 
office  expenses  and  salaries. 

At  the  end  of  the  operating  season,  you  could  close  into  the 
Log  Account  your  operating  accounts  in  such  order  as  to 
show  the  cost  per  M.  for  your  own  operations,  cost  per 
M.  for  contracted  logs,  total  cost  of  all  operated  logs  on 
the  cars  or  river  bank;  and  after  you  have  made  your 
stumpage  charge,  their  total  cost,  cost  of  all  logs,  either 
operated  or  purchased,  cost  of  the  logs  driven  and,  after 
adding  their  proportion  of  your  general  expense,  the  total 
cost  of  your  logs.  Close  into  your  Log  Account  your  Log 
Sales  and  you  will  have  the  amount  to  be  charged  or  credited 
to  profit  or  loss. 


VII.  ACADEMIC  EFFICIENCY 

LEADER,  EDWIN  F.   GAY 
Dean,  The  Graduate  School  of  Business  Administration,  Harvard  University 

MR.  GAY:  The  subject  set  for  discussion  at  this  round 
table  is  Academic  Efficiency.    Interest  in  this  subject 
has  been  inspired  everywhere  by  Bulletin  No.  5  of 
the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Learning, 
by  Morris  Llewellyn  Cooke,  the  title  of  that  bulletin  being 
Academic  and  Industrial  Efficiency.    That  report  presents  the 
views  of  a  business  man,  an  expert  in  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, concerning  the  extent  to  which  principles  of  adminis- 
tration of  the  industrial  world  are  applied  in  college  and 
university  administration. 

I  think  the  time  has  come  when  such  a  report  should  be 
considered  seriously  and  not  ridiculed.    One  may  not  agree 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  287 

with  all  the  suggestions  it  contains,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
one  must  admit  they  are  worthy  of  careful  thought.  Mr. 
Pritchett,  after  a  careful  study  of  conditions,  says  that  in 
the  financial  side  of  college  administration  scientific  business 
methods  are  obviously  applicable.  There  is  another  side  to 
which  the  methods  of  business  are  not  so  applicable;  that  is 
when  we  are  dealing  with  incommensurable  quantities  such  as 
scholarship  and  manhood.  But  there  is  a  wide  space  between 
these  two,  largely  directed  to  the  methods  of  teaching,  where 
the  principles  of  Scientific  Management  may  possibly  be 
applied  with  effectiveness.  Mr.  Cooke  proposes  that  the 
teaching  staff  be  relieved  of  the  business  of  administration, 
such  as  committee  work,  in  order  to  allow  more  time  for  the 
teachers  and  researchers  to  specialize.  This  would  require 
more  work  for  the  central  administration.  He  proposes  also 
that  costs  in  education  be  determined  in  terms  of  some 
standard  unit.  There  is  much  controversy  on  this  point,  for 
there  are  many  things  along  academic  lines  which  are  not  to 
be  measured  by  cost.  Taken  from  a  broad  point  of  view, 
however,  there  is  a  close  relation  between  the  cost  and  the 
output,  even  in  research  and  the  field  of  instruction. 

Mr.  Cooke  offers  one  suggestion  which  is  worthy  of  notice; 
that  is  a  bureau  of  inspection.  I  have  observed  that  it  is  not 
considered  by  some  just  the  right  thing  for  a  member  of  the 
administration  to  visit  classes  and  inspect  them.  There  is 
not  sufficient  inspection  of  study  and  correlation  in  the 
method  of  instruction.  I  believe  that  the  central  office  is 
justified  in  instituting  a  system  of  inspection  to  help  the 
instructors  teach,  and  moreover  I  believe  it  should  be  im- 
posed upon  them.  I  feel  sure  that  any  competent  instructor 
would  welcome  and  not  resent  such  a  plan. 

Another  suggestion  which  should  be  considered  is  the 
establishment  of  a  better  working  day.  My  own  impression 
is  that  we  work  too  long  hours  and  that  the  work  is  not  prop- 
erly ordered  in  those  hours.  We  work  overtime,  but  we  do 
not  work  with  sufficient  intensity  while  we  are  at  work. 

On  the  side  of  the  students  I  wish  to  emphasize  the  one  need 


288  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

seemingly  most  apparent.  There  should  be  something  like 
vocational  guidance  for  our  students.  There  should  be  effort 
made  to  help  them  find  out  what  they  are  fitted  for  and  what 
they  ought  to  work  for.  I  do  not  mean  any  ordering  of  them, 
but  careful  aid.  I  believe  many  students  go  through  college 
feeling  the  need  of  something  they  do  not  get  there.  I  do  not 
mean  that  studies  should  be  wholly  "  practical"  or  vocational, 
but  that  in  a  broad  sense  they  should  be  guided  by  a  realiza- 
tion of  their  utility  in  later  life.  Indeed,  this  would  strongly 
buttress  cultural  studies;  if  this  aid  could  be  given  the  stu- 
dents, their  interest  would  be  more  aroused  in  all  studies. 

There  are  in  the  report  many  valuable  suggestions  bearing 
directly  on  administration.  There  should  be  more  scientific 
business  methods  introduced  into  such  departments  as  the 
office  of  the  superintendent  of  buildings,  more  scientific  janitor 
service,  etc.  There  should  be  a  publicity  bureau.  There  is 
room  also  for  increased  efficiency  in  the  registrar's  office,  in 
the  management  of  finances  and  in  accounting  methods. 
There  should  be  standardization  in  university  administration 
in  order  to  effect  more  efficient  management  and  in  order  to 
afford  more  reliable  comparison  among  colleges. 

It  is  undoubtedly  on  this  side  that  the  more  immediate 
result  may  be  looked  for  in  college  administration  from  the 
newly  aroused  interest  in  Scientific  Management.  But  we 
may  hope  that  ultimately  something  of  the  spirit  of  Scientific 
Management,  its  thorough  study  of  the  work  to  be  done,  its 
thorough  adjustment  of  means  to  the  end,  may  give  an 
added  impulse  to  more  efficient  teaching. 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  call  upon  Professor  Edwin  J.  Bartlett, 
of  the  Department  of  Chemistry  of  Dartmouth  College. 

MR.  BARTLETT:  In  the  few  minutes  which  I  have  been 
invited  to  use,  I  will  not  undertake  to  confirm  or  to  confute 
the  views  which  any  individual  may  have  expressed,  but  rather 
will  try  to  open  the  subject  broadly  to  our  thought  and  our 
discussion. 

And  at  the  outset  let  me  ask  you  to  note  that  in  business 
affairs  the  saving  of  time,  of  money,  of  effort  does  not  of 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  289 

itself  bring  increased  efficiency  even  when  efficiency  can  be 
accurately  measured  by  dividends.  If  any  captain  of  industry 
were  to  put  me  in  charge  of  a  business  and  I  were  to  start  for 
economy,  without  experience,  grasp  of  the  situation  or  busi- 
ness insight,  I  might  begin  by  dismissing  the  expensive  adver- 
tising manager,  because  from  my  point  of  view  any  one  can 
write  advertisements.  I  might  go  on  to  reduce  the  annual 
appropriation  for  advertising  from  $100,000  to  $50,000,  send 
departmental  buyers  to  Europe  only  once  instead  of  twice  a 
year,  allow  them  the  minimum  of  traveling  expenses  and  let 
them  pay  for  their  own  luxuries  since  they  have  the  fun  of  the 
trip,  stop  ten-cent  lunches  that  cost  the  house  fifteen  cents, 
dispense  with  costly  exhibits  at  fairs  and  expositions,  keep  the 
old  machinery  going  as  long  as  it  can  be  patched  up,  eliminate 
every  department  that  does  not  show  a  cash  profit  and  do 
innumerable  other  things  that  any  one  can  see  might  effect 
expenditure.  These  measures  might  easily  be  ruinous  to  the 
business  unless  the  relation  of  each  to  the  whole  had  been 
carefully  studied  out. 

Even  less  can  one  be  confident  of  the  advantage  of  a  similar 
course  in  our  affairs. 

We  must  set  educational  experience,  insight  and  grasp 
over  against  the  same  qualities  in  business. 

The  primitive  type  of  college  was  never  better  defined  than 
as  a  log  with  a  student  at  one  end  and  Mark  Hopkins  at  the 
other.  But  the  students  are  many;  the  Mark  Hopkins 
are  few;  lesser  men  take  his  place;  and  the  log  needs  to  be 
large  and  complicated  to  carry  them  all. 

The  college  organization  divides  itself  very  sharply  into  two 
branches,  —  educational  and  subsidiary.  They  are  not  co- 
ordinate. The  whole  purpose  of  the  college,  its  founders  and 
benefactors  lies  in  the  first  division;  but  the  business  frame- 
work is  necessary.  It  is  not  to  be  admitted  that  education 
should  be  business-like  except  in  the  sense  of  being  well 
organized  and  without  waste;  but  it  can  be  demanded  that 
the  business  departments  of  a  college  shall  be  educational 
and  form  a  constant  exhibit  and  demonstration  of  efficiency. 


290  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

Without  attempting  any  exhaustive  analysis  we  may  say 
that  the  subsidiary  departments  readily  divide  into  the  fol- 
lowing branches: 

1.  Finance;  which  deals  with  investments,  collections  and 
expenditures,  —  the  department  through  which  all  the  streams 
of  money  flow  in  and  out. 

2.  Construction  and  Maintenance;   which  has  charge  of 
the  important  material  basis,  —  the  highly  developed  and 
specialized  log  upon  which  the  modern  college  holds  its 
sessions. 

3.  Records  and  Discipline;    the  college  clearing-house;  a 
cumbrous  over-development  which  could  be  reduced  to  great 
simplicity  if  it  were  not  that  college  students  are  not  all 
students. 

4.  Publication. 

5.  Commissary;   which  enables  the  college  to  act  as  pur- 
veyor, as  host  and  entertainer. 

6.  Sanitary;    of  enormous  recent  development,  including 
medical  care  of  the  students,  hygiene,  gymnastics  and  athletics. 

7.  Statistical;    much  farther  developed  in  some  institu- 
tions than  in  others. 

8.  Social;    including    general    correspondence,    entertain- 
ments, functions  and  ceremonies. 

9.  The  Library;  which  some  might  consider  instructional, 
but  which  is  classed  here  because  of  the  large  demand  for 
organized  administrative  work. 

Of  the  total  net  expenditures  given  in  the  Report  of  the 
Treasurer  of  Dartmouth  College  for  1910-11  about  42  per 
cent  are  for  other  purposes  than  instruction;  while  in  1880 
about  29  per  cent  were  for  other  than  instructional  purposes. 

It  would  require  very  careful  dissection  of  dissimilar  accounts 
to  obtain  exactly  parallel  figures,  because  in  this  period  of 
thirty  years  the  college  has  not  only  remolded  its  accounts 
but  has  also  taken  on  much  more  business  and  added  many 
conveniences.  About  75  per  cent  of  the  students  room  in 
college  dormitories,  instead  of  about  30  per  cent  as  was  the 
case  thirty  years  ago;  the  college  has  taken  on  general 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  291 

heating,  lighting  and  water  supply;  everything  is  more 
sanitary,  more  comfortable,  even  more  luxurious.  But  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  expense  per  student  of  the  subsidiary 
departments,  on  a  comparable  basis  has  more  than  doubled, 
while  the  number  of  undergraduates  has  increased  from  300 
to  1,200.  And  at  the  same  time  the  loss  in  going  through 
college — the  shrinkage  of  the  classes  in  four  years — is  40  per 
cent,  while  in  the  decades  beginning  and  ending  with  1880  it 
was  only  about  20  per  cent  of  those  entering.  Plainly  large 
business  interests  are  involved  and  the  question  is  suggested, 
"How  much  does  the  business  side  of  a  college  cost  per  stu- 
dent?" the  answer  being  more  valuable  according  to  the 
degree  of  distribution. 

The  various  administrative  departments  of  a  college  are 
related  to  the  world  outside  of  the  college,  to  each  other  and 
to  the  primary  college  consisting  of  the  teachers  and  students. 
They  thus  present  complicated  problems  of  organization  which 
have  been  only  crudely  solved. 

The  side  that  faces  the  public  in  each  case  needs  to  show 
equality  with  the  best  business  usage,  it  is  to  be  hoped  by 
adapting  or  originating,  and  not  by  imitating.  Here  offi- 
ces, stenographers,  business  journeys  are  necessary.  The 
employees  take  on  the  ways  of  the  business  world. 

The  complicated  relations  of  the  departments  may  be  illus- 
trated by  a  single  case.  A  student  is  removed  from  college 
by  a  committee  acting  for  the  faculty.  The  action  is  based 
upon  records  collected  from  the  student's  instructors  by  one 
department.  The  student  occupies  a  room  rented  in  one 
office,  and  has  a  room  key  obtained  in  another;  he  has  paid 
or  failed  to  pay  rent  in  another;  he  holds  a  laboratory  table 
and  key,  and  is  due  in  at  least  five  courses  of  instruction.  The 
action  must  be  communicated  to  all  parties  concerned  and 
made  a  matter  of  record.  Judging  by  the  experience  of  a 
customer,  the  coordination  of  departments  in  business  houses 
has  been  only  crudely  worked  out.  It  is  still  more  crude  in 
the  college.  In  this  college,  at  any  rate,  it  is  constantly 
improving. 


292  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

The  relations  of  the  business  departments  to  the  students 
and  teachers  require  the  best  elementary  business  qualities. 
The  students  are  keen,  critical  and  suspicious;  also  they  are 
in  process  of  education  and  should  be  shown  the  best  possible 
methods;  and,  since  their  own  manners  are  largely  formed  by 
those  in  authority  over  them,  they  should  be  treated  with 
the  utmost  courtesy  and  patience.  The  teachers  have  at 
least  an  adequate  appreciation  of  what  is  due  to  themselves, 
but  readily  yield  to  reasonable  rather  than  arbitrary  presen- 
tations. 

Unfailing  courtesy,  promptness,  accuracy,  readiness  to 
acknowledge  and  correct  errors,  and  a  certain  sense  of  the 
fitness  of  things,  should  characterize  the  employees  in  the 
business  offices  of  a  college;  and  this  suggests  a  second  ques- 
tion, "How  can  the  college  recruit  men  for  the  administrative 
departments  with  the  proper  business  training?" 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  all  the  accounting,  record- 
ing, building,  repairing  and  entertaining  are  mere  details 
in  the  onward  march  of  an  institution  for  education.  The 
occasional  air  of  haughty  autonomy  and  gloomy  mystery  in 
these  departments  is  certainly  misplaced.  It  is  easy  for  a 
committee  of  clever  business  men  on  the  corporation  to  issue 
a  business  order  without  looking  or  caring  beyond  a  certain 
end  in  view,  but  some  of  the  men  who  are  giving  their  whole 
time  to  the  college  could  help  them  in  nearly  every  problem. 
Orders  from  the  corporation  would  better  come  from  the 
corporation  itself  rather  than  from  a  subordinate  in  another 
department.  No  department,  whether  of  instruction  or 
administration,  should  be  dependent  for  repairs,  heat,  light, 
the  adjustment  of  charts  or  apparatus  upon  the  favor  of  any 
other  department.  It  should  be  a  matter  of  adjustment  by 
some  central  authority,  or  manager,  with  both  departments. 

There  are  certain  tests  of  business  efficiency  which  can  gen- 
erally be  applied  in  business,  —  the  maintenance  and  expan- 
sion of  the  plant,  the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  product, 
and  always  dividends.  No  such  tests  can  be  applied  to  the 
business  departments  of  a  college.  A  new  building  may  be 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  293 

the  fruit  of  a  gift,  and  may  increase  the  annual  deficit.  No 
one  can  state  the  relation  even  approximately  between  the 
educational  product  and  the  efficiency  of  the  heating  plant. 
The  dividends  are  in  the  unseen  and  intangible  world.  And 
this  suggests  a  third  question,  "What  is  the  standard  and 
measure  of  the  efficiency  of  the  subsidiary  departments  of  a 
college?" 

I  have  perhaps  given  an  illustration  of  the  absorption  by  the 
business  departments  of  more  attention  than  is  their  due  by 
the  disproportionate  time  I  have  given  to  that  side  of  the  sub- 
ject. But  the  real  business  of  the  college  is  educational, — to 
produce  men  for  the  state  in  physical,  mental  and  moral  fitness. 

In  the  luminous  future  when  all  plans  are  matured  in  the 
cold  light  of  scientific  logic;  when  marriages,  and  the  number, 
quality  and  sex  of  the  progeny,  a  man's  occupation  and 
relation  to  his  group,  and  the  time  when  it  is  not  worth  while 
to  feed  him  any  longer,  are  all  determined  in  the  same  inerrant 
manner,  the  economic  waste  which  permits  a  man  to  go  from 
Seattle  or  Lebanon  to  Harvard,  or  from  Chicago  or  Denver 
to  Dartmouth,  will  cease,  and  a  student  will  choose  his  college 
on  economic  grounds,  —  the  cheapest,  or  the  nearest,  or  per- 
haps the  one  in  which  some  special  branch  is  best  unfolded. 
At  present  the  streams  start  far  back  and  flow  steadily.  For 
next  year's  class  not  less  than  400  nor  more  than  500  are 
marching  hither  from  all  over  the  land.  For  the  most  part 
it  is  a  sentiment  that  marshals  them. 

Then,  too,  the  love  that  binds  a  man  for  ever  to  his  college, 
causing  him  to  bring  back  gifts  and  to  inspire  others  with  his 
own  enthusiasm,  springs  so  little  from  an  appreciation  of  the 
economy  with  which  its  educational  advantages  are  managed, 
that  one  almost  believes  that  broad  spaces,  generous  rooms, 
artistic  adornment,  appliances  made  convenient  to  one  de- 
partment in  one  place  and  to  another  in  another  place,  are 
attractive  economy.  A  noble  hall  like  Webster  must  leave 
some  permanent  impress  upon  a  Dartmouth  man  although 
it  has  not  been  used  two  hours  yet  in  this  semester. 

And  not  a  dollar  in  all  the  millions  of  endowment  represents 


294  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

earnings,  or  subscriptions  of  the  people  to  dividend- paying 
stock.  Some  one  loved  the  college  and  its  purpose,  and  gave 
outright  a  thousand,  ten  thousand,  a  million,  dollars.  And 
while  waste  of  these  great  gifts  would  be  criminal,  one  wonders 
whether  they  would  come  to  an  institution  managed  with 
the  closeness  of  a  factory.  "There  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet 
increaseth;  and  there  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet, 
but  it  tendeth  to  poverty." 

Neither  the  factory  nor  the  home  furnishes  a  model  for  the 
college;  but  if  one  must  be  chosen,  let  it  be  the  home. 

The  great  problems  of  economy  over  which  the  college 
teacher  puzzles  most, — the  efficiency  of  his  own  teaching, 
the  intellectual  under-development  and  waste  which  he  sees 
about  him  —  cannot  here  be  touched,  but  one  final  question 
can  be  thrown  out,  like  the  waves  from  a  Marconi  appara- 
tus, to  whomsoever  is  attuned  to  receive  it,  —  "What  is  the 
measure  of  the  efficiency  of  a  college?" 

MR.  GAY:  We  should  like  to  hear  from  Professor  A.  G. 
Webster,  of  the  Department  of  Physics,  Clark  University. 

MR.  WEBSTER:  In  considering  the  question  how  far  the 
methods  of  Scientific  Management  are  applicable  to  academic 
affairs,  we  have  first  to  consider  whether  there  is  any  resem- 
blance between  the  purposes  of  college  and  university  activities 
and  those  of  business.  Here  we  are  confronted  at  the  very 
outset  with  a  striking  difference.  The  object  of  business 
is  to  make  money,  and  to  this  consideration  everything  else 
is  subordinated.  In  this  very  conference,  several  of  the 
speakers  have  spoken  of  the  necessity  for  the  manager  to 
have  his  eye  always  upon  the  balance  sheet,  and  this  senti- 
ment has  generally  drawn  applause.  In  the  case  of  the 
college  or  university,  nothing  is  farther  from  the  truth.  The 
object  is  not  to  make  money.  Unfortunately,  there  is  a 
good  deal  of  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  the  object  is,  and 
it  would  doubtless  be  a  capital  idea  to  come  to  an  agreement 
on  this  matter.  But  we  can  say  without  much  fear  of 
contradiction,  that  its  object  is  twofold;  first,  to  develop 
the  powers  of  the  student  and  fit  him  to  make  his  proper 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  295 

contribution  to  life  and  civilization;  and  second,  to  advance 
civilization  by  making  a  direct  contribution  to  learning  by 
means  of  intelligent  research.  This  last  object  is  often  lost 
sight  of  in  this  country.  In  fact,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 
our  business  friends,  the  scientific  managers,  so  willing  to 
make  suggestions  with  regard  to  the  management  of  academic 
affairs,  have  had  chiefly  in  mind  technical  schools,  whose 
object  is  pretty  definitely  a  business  one.  But  this  is  far 
from  being  the  general  case.  We  have  to  teach  men  not  only 
to  earn  a  living,  to  construct  engines,  dynamos  and  tele- 
phones, but  to  live  a  correct  life,  to  enjoy  beauty  and  to 
ameliorate  the  conditions  of  life  in  general.  Let  us  admit  at 
once  that  in  its  purely  business  undertakings,  such  as  the 
investment  and  disbursement  of  funds,  the  providing  of 
buildings  and  care  of  grounds,  the  furnishing  of  food  and 
lodging,  a  university  should  be  guided  by  the  same  business 
considerations  as  any  commercial  undertaking.  At  the 
same  time,  the  element  of  cost  and  of  profit  is  even  here  not 
the  main  one,  but  efficiency  is  measured  by  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  object  sought.  Mr.  Cooke  may  be  able  to  make 
excellent  suggestions  with  regard  to  the  running  of  a  physical 
laboratory,  and  yet  be  perfectly  helpless  when  asked  how  to 
increase  the  efficiency  of  a  course  attempting  to  give  an  idea 
of  the  beauties  of  Shakespeare  or  Chaucer,  or  of  a  course  in 
philosophy  or  Sanskrit. 

Without  doubt,  the  chief  successes  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment have  been  due  to  the  standardization  of  the  output. 
In  academic  work  such  standardization  is  quite  impossible, 
the  object  being  not  to  turn  out  a  large  number  of  individuals 
exactly  alike,  but  to  have  each  one  different  from  the  others 
according  to  his  manifold  needs.  This  immediately  negatives 
many  of  the  leading  methods  applicable  to  business.  But 
there  are  certainly  some  things  that  we  can  learn  from  busi- 
ness. The  first  is  that  we  must  have  the  best  possible  raw 
material  to  work  upon.  It  is  assumed  in  any  business  estab- 
lishment that  the  main  concern  of  every  person  connected 
with  it  is  the  interests  of  the  establishment,  and  if  this  is  not 


296  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

the  case,  he  is  asked  to  leave.  In  the  case  of  the  colleges, 
this  is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  student  body  is  largely 
diluted  by  the  presence  of  persons  whose  chief  interest  is  not 
any  of  the  purposes  for  which  our  colleges  were  founded. 
This  is  a  cause  of  great  waste,  and  they  should  be  summarily 
removed.  Again,  while  our  teaching  body  is  composed  of 
men  of  high  character  and  ability,  I  believe  that  I  may  say 
without  injustice,  that  their  ability  and  training  are  not  as 
great  as  they  should  be,  and  are  inferior  to  those  of  the  pro- 
fessorate in  Germany,  France  and  Italy.  In  order  to  remedy 
this,  it  is  necessary  to  offer  greater  attractions  for  first-class 
ability  to  go  into  academic  work,  both  by  increase  of  salaries 
and  by  removing  from  professors  the  drudgery  of  business 
affairs  and  the  teaching  of  unwilling  and  unfit  students.  Here 
either  Scientific  Management  or  what  is  the  same  thing,  plain 
common  sense,  can  be  of  great  help.  I  do  not  believe,  as  it 
is  often  stated,  that  the  best  brains  of  the  country  are  in 
business,  but  I  do  believe  that  the  quality  of  professors  can 
be  very  materially  raised  by  an  intelligent  effort,  such  as  has 
not  been  made  up  to  the  present. 

I  have  received  one  very  positive  suggestion  from  the 
addresses  that  I  have  heard  here.  Mr.  Taylor  has  stated  that 
under  conditions  of  Scientific  Management,  there  is  required 
a  personnel  of  about  one  manager  or  planner  to  every  three 
workers.  The  adoption  of  this  ratio  in  the  universities,  of 
one  instructor  to  every  three  students,  would  undoubtedly 
enormously  increase  the  efficiency,  as  has  been  shown  in  the 
adoption  of  the  preceptorial  system  at  Princeton.  It  is  also 
noticeable  that  in  those  institutions  that  are  devoted  to 
graduate  work,  where  this  ratio  more  nearly  obtains,  the 
efficiency  is  very  high.  Unfortunately,  while  in  business  the 
increased  efficiency  brings  increased  returns  more  than  suffi- 
cient to  pay  the  additional  expense  of  the  large  managing 
staff,  in  the  case  of  the  university  the  increased  efficiency  is 
attended  with  no  increased  income.  This  is  another  of  those 
fundamental  differences  which  I  have  pointed  out.  The 
advantage  to  the  community  which  accrues  must,  however, 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  297 

eventually  justify  the   increased  expenditure,  as   has  been 
found  to  be  the  case  at  Princeton. 

The  attempt  to  standardize  the  output  of  professors  by 
counting  the  hours  or  by  any  system  of  cards  or  clocks,  can 
be  attended  only  with  laughable  results.  All  our  best  pro- 
fessors now  work  all  the  time  that  there  is,  and  no  one  who  is 
acquainted  with  their  habits  will  admit  that  they  have  a  work- 
ing day  of  a  definite  number  of  hours,  nor  can  they  have. 
No  one  sits  down  to  write  poetry  from  nine  to  twelve,  or  has 
definite  hours  to  engage  in  research  in  pure  mathematics. 
He  must  do  it  when  the  idea  occurs  to  him  and  it  is  just  as 
likely  to  be  in  the  middle  of  the  night  or  on  Sunday,  as  at  any 
other  time.  The  university  does  not  pay  the  professor  by 
the  piece-rate,  or  by  the  task  system.  It  gives  him  certain 
duties  and  expects  him  to  perform  them.  Good  business  will 
undoubtedly  demand  that  he  shall  be  subject  to  inspection, 
for  even  among  professors  there  will  be  some  incompetents  and 
some  sluggards.  The  inspection,  however,  must  be  by  com- 
petent hands.  A  man  must  be  judged  by  a  jury  of  his  peers, 
and  if  he  is  what  he  ought  to  be,  the  number  of  his  peers 
may  be  very  limited.  Rather  than  to  provide  a  definite  sys- 
tem to  do  this,  the  best  and  simplest  way  will  probably  be 
to  find  out  the  man's  reputation  among  his  scientific  colleagues. 
In  this  connection,  I  may  speak  of  methods  of  appointment 
of  professors.  In  this  country,  these  methods  are  often 
extremely  crude.  To  be  sure,  presidents  do  not  often  now 
appoint  personal  favorites  nor  does  political  influence  cut 
much  figure,  at  least  in  this  part  of  the  country.  The  members 
of  a  department  are  generally  consulted,  and  their  advice 
usually  taken.  Very  much  better,  however,  is  the  plan 
adopted  in  most  European  countries,  of  having  a  qualified 
committee  of  experts  in  the  subject  nominate  the  best  candi- 
date, disregarding  all  other  circumstances  than  those  of 
competence.  In  Italy,  this  committee  is  composed  of  pro- 
fessors in  the  same  subject  from  other  universities  as  well  as 
from  the  one  where  the  vacancy  exists.  Such  a  plan  must 
inevitably  raise  the  quality. 


298  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

I  come  finally  to  the  question  of  research,  so  often  over- 
looked in  discussions  of  university  efficiency.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  this  country  has  so  far  not  contributed  anything 
like  her  share  to  the  advancement  of  learning  which  might 
properly  be  expected,  considering  her  great  prosperity  and  the 
size  of  her  educational  plant.  We  spend  more  on  education 
than  any  other  country,  but  we  do  not  get  a  corresponding 
return.  Some  of  the  reasons  for  this  I  have  tried  to  suggest. 

In  closing,  let  me  strongly  deprecate  the  valuation  of 
research  by  any  outsider;  I  mean  by  one  who  is  not  himself 
devoted  to  the  advancement  of  learning  as  his  chief  pursuit, 
and  who  has  not  himself  been  an  original  producer.  Nothing 
can  do  more  to  confirm  the  position  of  mediocrity  in  which 
this  country  finds  itself  hi  the  status  of  learning,  than  the 
application  of  commercial  judgments  to  matters  that  are 
essentially  concerned  with  the  spirit. 

MR.  GAY:  In  some  of  the  womens'  colleges,  I  understand, 
practical  work  is  being  done  along  the  lines  suggested  in  Mr. 
Cooke's  report.  We  shall  take  unusual  interest,  therefore, 
in  the  remarks  of  the  next  speaker,  Miss  Laura  Gill,  President 
of  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae. 

Miss  GILL:  The  brief  testimony  which  I  wish  to  bring  to 
this  conference  relates  solely  to  the  interest  which  women 
are  showing  in  an  application  of  Scientific  Management  to 
academic  problems.  Indeed,  I  may  almost  claim  that  the 
chief  interest  which  women  have  yet  evinced  in  Scientific 
Management  has  been  because  of  this  important  application 
of  it. 

During  the  past  months,  since  the  issue  of  Mr.  Cooke's 
pamphlet  upon  Academic  Efficiency,  I  have  tried  to  imagine 
what  impression  it  might  have  made  upon  me  had  it  found 
me  unprepared  for  its  views.  So  much  of  the  comment  has 
apparently  arisen  from  a  general  lack  of  acquaintance  with 
the  principles  and  methods  of  Scientific  Management  that 
one  is  tempted  to  attribute  a  large  share  of  adverse  criticism 
to  a  conservative  instinct  to  run  to  cover  before  an  unknown 
force. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  299 

In  February,  1910,  Mr.  Taylor  invited  to  his  house  the 
committee  of  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae  which  is 
composed  of  women  who  are  trustees  of  colleges.  He  gave 
them  an  exposition  of  the  philosophy  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, and  showed  them  its  practical  working  in  the  plant 
of  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company.  A  week  later  Mr. 
Cooke  gave  an  entire  day  to  a  conference  with  this  same  com- 
mittee in  Boston,  initiating  them  still  further  into  the  possi- 
ble application  of  these  principles  to  committee  work  and  to 
college  administration. 

So  you  can  readily  see  that  no  one  of  us  women  trustees  of 
colleges  could  read  Mr.  Cooke's  report  without  the  memory 
of  explanations  which  destroyed  interrogation  points  almost 
before  they  could  be  formed.  Only  one  woman  in  our  entire 
committee  revealed  any  failure  to  comprehend  that  there 
was  large  significance  for  college  administration  in  these 
new  phases  of  exact  knowledge,  cooperation  and  legitimate 
economy. 

The  eagerness  to  reap  an  immediate  harvest  of  increased 
efficiency  was  checked  by  an  evident  lack  of  trained  agents 
to  make  the  requisite  studies.  Vassar  College,  however, 
proved  itself  ready  to  make  the  preliminary  start  in  a  greater 
degree  of  systematized  business  control.  A  woman  of  wide 
practical  experience  was  appointed  without  engrossing  specific 
duties,  to  study  each  part  of  the  business  activities  of  the 
residence  life  seriatim;  and  to  suggest,  as  well  as  to  effect, 
improvements.  The  management  of  the  bakeries  and  the 
laundry,  and  the  greater  division  of  the  matrons'  duties  on 
functional  lines,  came  duly  to  consideration  with  most  satis- 
factory results.  Whether  this  preliminary  work  shall  go  on 
to  full  fruit  in  any  detailed  application  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, time  alone  will  tell.  But  any  modest  beginning  is 
valuable. 

A  meager  study  was  made  in  May,  1910,  in  regard  to  the 
method  of  purchase  and  prices  paid  in  New  England  colleges 
for  diplomas.  Yale  University  seemed  to  be  the  only 
institution  which  contracted  separately  for  its  parchment, 


300  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

engraving  and  engrossing.  The  prices  seemed  to  vary  from 
seventy-five  cents  to  a  dollar  and  ten  cents  for  practically 
the  same  product,  according  to  the  degree  of  specification  in 
the  method  of  purchase. 

Harvard  University  has  been  introducing  great  economies 
into  its  stationery  and  printing  budgets,  not  by  any  reduction 
in  quality,  but  by  reducing  the  number  of  forms,  the  number 
of  buying  centers,  and  by  studying  the  placement  of  various 
insertions  in  their  publications. 

But  to  return  to  our  womens'  problem.  We  found  that 
even  any  proper  system  of  stores  was  temporarily  impossible 
for  lack  of  trained  workers.  Therefore,  our  next  thought 
was  to  get  some  women  under  apprenticeship  for  stores  super- 
vision, award  of  printing  contracts,  and  registrar's  duties. 
The  beginning  is  modest  indeed,  but  today  two  college  women 
are  in  apprenticeship  approximately  as  are  the  young  college 
men.  Whether  the  impracticability  of  superintendence  for 
women  will  prevent  them  from  reaping  the  full  benefit  of 
such  a  training  we  shall  soon  see. 

In  any  event,  the  women  trustees  of  colleges  are  practically 
agreed  that  Scientific  Management  has  a  definite  value  for 
them  in  the  functional  management  of  dormitories;  in  the 
purchase,  storage,  and  distribution  of  supplies;  in  printing; 
and  in  registrar's  methods.  How  soon  we  can  get  proper 
agents  to  effect  these  economies  of  material  and  human  force 
is  a  serious  problem;  but  it  does  not  destroy  our  belief  that 
help  is  coming  at  last. 

This,  then,  is  a  simple  statement  in  regard  to  the  extent 
of  womens'  interests  in  the  application  of  Scientific  Manage- 
ment to  academic  problems. 

MR.  GAY:  I  call  next  upon  Professor  John  K.  Lord,  of  the 
Department  of  Latin  in  Dartmouth  College.  Professor  Lord 
has  shown  not  only  long  service  of  efficient  teaching,  but  as 
acting  president  of  Dartmouth  College  has  been  brought  into 
close  contact  with  problems  of  administration. 

MR.  LORD:  The  report  of  Mr.  Cooke  upon  Academic  and 
Industrial  Efficiency  calls  for  a  large  measure  of  assent.  One 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  301 

must  agree  with  very  much  of  what  he  says  of  the  application 
of  Scientific  Management  to  the  finances,  accounts,  the  care 
and  use  of  buildings,  equipment,  purchasing,  correspondence, 
and  in  general  to  all  that  goes  under  the  designation  of  the 
" plant"  of  a  college.  Perhaps  the  application  may  be  still 
further  extended  to  matters  that  are  not  so  directly  in  the  line 
of  business,  as  to  questions  of  tenure,  of  salary  and  of  burden- 
some duties. 

The  report  is  written  with  an  evident  sympathy  for  the 
difficulties  of  college  administration,  and  it  ought  to  be 
examined  with  a  corresponding  openness  to  suggestions  of 
improvement  by  college  administrators. 

At  the  very  outset  of  the  report,  however,  one  is  impressed 
by  the  failure  to  recognize  the  fundamental  difference  between 
a  college  and  a  business  corporation.  There  is  an  attempt 
to  reduce  them  to  a  common  denominator,  and  that  denomi- 
nator is  "profits."  "One  is  struck,"  says  the  report,  "in 
any  such  study  of  collegiate  conditions  with  the  absence  of 
any  gage  of  efficiency  which  even  remotely  resembles,  for 
instance,  profits  in  an  industrial  undertaking." 

With  this  idea  of  the  profits  of  a  business  enterprise  as  the 
gage  of  efficiency,  it  is  not  strange  that  Mr.  Cooke  objects 
to  many  things  that  are  done  in  a  college,  and  regards  them 
as  waste,  or  on  account  of  his  system  refuses  to  take  them  into 
consideration.  He  objects,  for  instance,  to  the  waste  of  time 
and  strength  in  committee  work  by  members  of  a  faculty; 
but  he  does  not  realize  that,  while  there  may  be  some  waste 
and  much  weariness  in  it,  there  is  nothing  that  so  effectively 
brings  a  member  of  a  faculty  into  direct  and  sympathetic 
relation  to  the  inner  life  of  a  college,  and  into  a  knowledge  of 
its  vital  problems,  as  work  on  an  important  committee. 

Or  again,  in  making  a  comparison  of  efficiency  between  the 
work  of  a  college  teacher  and  a  workman  in  some  business, 
he  finds  it  necessary  to  throw  out  of  his  reckoning  all  that  the 
teacher  does  except  in  the  working  hours  that  are  common  to 
him  and  the  laborer.  Thus  he  refuses  to  consider  the  time 
which  the  teacher  devotes  to  his  studies  in  his  evenings  or  his 


302  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

vacations,  —  time  which  is  often  indispensable  for  preparation 
and  always  for  growth  —  without  which  it  wpuld  be  impossible 
for  him  to  perform  his  class-room  duties  with  the  inspiration 
and  enthusiasm  that  are  essential  to  success,  and  that  are 
drawn  only  from  fresh  study.  With  equal  impropriety  might 
it  have  been  said  that,  because  a  laborer  does  not  spend  his 
evenings  and  holidays  in  occupations  tending  to  increase  his 
efficiency  in  his  daily  work,  he  therefore  fails  in  efficiency  in 
comparison  with  the  college  teacher.  The  standard  of  one 
cannot  be  the  standard  of  the  other. 

Scientific  Management,  whose  gage  of  efficiency  is  profits, 
cannot  be  applied  to  an  organization  that  is  not  run  for 
profits  as  it  can  be  applied  to  one  that  is.  A  college  looks  to 
profit,  but  not  to  profits.  Profit  as  applied  to  it,  and  profits 
as  applied  to  a  business  enterprise,  are  incommensurable 
terms.  The  latter  are  exhibited  in  a  balance  sheet,  based  on 
cost  of  materials,  labor,  wear  and  tear,  etc.,  each  item  of  which 
can  be  definitely  known;  the  product  can  be  inventoried  at 
a  set  market  value,  and  at  any  given  time  the  concern  can  be 
shown  to  be  solvent  or  insolvent.  The  profits  of  a  business 
concern  are  for  the  immediate  benefit  of  its  stockholders. 

It  is  different  with  a  college.  It  has  no  stockholders  who 
look  for  dividends.  Its  profit  is  not  for  those  who  have  given 
money  for  its  support  or  for  those  who  administer  its  affairs, 
but  for  society  at  large;  and  it  is  expressed  not  in  dollars  and 
cents,  but  in  life  and  character.  Such  products  cannot  be 
inventoried  or  tagged  with  a  market  price,  nor  can  they 
be  secured  at  a  definitely  tabulated  cost.  Intelligence  and 
morality  are  not  bought  at  a  price,  but  are  the  product  of 
other  intelligence  and  morality  expressing  themselves  in  close 
contact  and  often  in  indirect  and  unsuspected  ways.  A 
college  is  preeminently  a  place  where  the  spiritual,  in  its 
broadest  sense,  holds  control,  and  this  is  precisely  what  cannot 
be  expressed  in  figures  or  shown  in  tabulated  form.  While 
it  may  be  developed  under  definite,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
formal,  methods,  it  cannot  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of 
" student  hours"  as  expressing  its  real  content  and  meaning. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  303 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  remark  that  the  power  of  a  teacher 
does  not  depend  primarily  upon  his  knowledge,  or  his  diligence 
as  given  in  hours,  but  upon  his  personality,  which  makes  use 
of  knowledge  and  diligence  as  means  in  forwarding  the  great 
end  of  character.  The  power  of  sympathy  and  the  ability 
to  influence,  which  are  the  highest  elements  of  a  teacher's 
value,  cannot  be  stated  in  any  known  formula.  And  fortu- 
nately these  vary  with  different  men.  One  teacher  is  effective 
with  one  student,  another  with  another,  so  that  in  a  given 
college  one  teacher  may  be  effective  with  one  set  and  not 
with  another,  or  at  one  time  and  not  at  another,  and  there 
is  no  possible  way  of  accurately  establishing  relative  effi- 
ciency. In  the  long  run  one  teacher  may  clearly  be  more 
effective  than  another,  but  the  fact  will  appear  from  general 
comparisons  covering  considerable  time,  and  not  from  a 
tabulation  of  particular  results. 

If  Scientific  Management  means  merely  the  attempt  to 
secure  the  best  results  by  a  careful  observation  and  a  rational 
interpretation  of  facts,  it  is  as  applicable  to  a  literary  institu- 
tion as  elsewhere;  but  if  it  is  a  method  of  determining  results 
on  the  basis  of  cost  and  profits,  exhibited  in  a  tabulated  balance 
sheet,  it  cannot  be  so  applied,  since  intellectual  and  moral 
forces,  which  are  the  staple  of  the  college  industry,  cannot  be 
reduced  to  the  standard  of  the  counting-room.  There  is 
much  in  Mr.  Cooke's  report  relating  to  the  business  manage- 
ment of  colleges  for  which  those  who  administer  them  may  be 
grateful,  but  they  can  hardly  feel  that  the  standard  of  the 
material  shall  become  that  of  the  intellectual  and  the  spiritual. 

MR.  GAY:  Professor  Charles  W.  Mixter,  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Political  Economy  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  is 
concerned  with  a  field  of  research  and  of  teaching  which  brings 
one  into  closer  touch  with  the  facts  of  business  than  does  any 
other  field  of  teaching.  We  are  fortunate,  therefore,  that 
Professor  Mixter  could  be  with  us. 

MR.  MIXTER:  Our  colleges  and  universities  stand  in  such 
crying  need  of  increased  efficiency,  and  Mr.  Cooke  in  per- 
forming a  great  service  has  been  so  unreasonably  attacked 


304  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

by  many  persons  possessing  but  slight  acquaintance  with  the 
principles  of  Scientific  Management,  that  I  am  inclined  to 
take  up  the  cudgels  in  his  defense.  But  he  is  able  to  defend 
himself;  and  therefore  some  remarks  at  the  outset  in  adverse 
criticism  may  be  of  greater  use. 

In  the  first  place  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  Mr.  Cooke 
in  his  report  does  not  present  a  complete  scheme  for  Scientific 
Management;  he  does  not,  generally  speaking,  get  beyond 
suggestions  for  systematized  management.  That  there  is  a 
vast  difference  between  systematized  management  and  Scien- 
tific Management  has  been  fully  demonstrated  to  us  by  Mr. 
Kendall  in  his  address  this  afternoon.  Nobody  knows  this 
any  better,  of  course,  than  Mr.  Cooke  himself;  and  doubtless 
he  had  good  reasons  for  not  going  extensively  into  Scientific 
Management.  Nevertheless,  I  think  it  was  an  error  of 
omission  that  he  did  not  more  fully  indicate  the  ultimate 
destination  of  the  movement  he  was  forwarding.  The  time 
will  come  when  the  colleges  will  take  up  Scientific  Manage- 
ment, and  when  they  do,  the  work  will  begin  just  where  Taylor 
began  at  the  outset  of  the  development  of  his  system,  —  with 
the  ascertainment  by  unit  time-studies  of  what  constitutes  for 
the  students  "a  fair  day's  work,"  and  the  devising  of  suitable 
means  for  securing  the  performance  of  that  "fair  day's  work." 

On  the  other  hand,  I  think  it  was  an  error  that  Mr.  Cooke 
said  anything  at  all  just  now  about  change  in  tenure  of  office 
for  professors,  about  the  economic  waste  undoubtedly  con- 
nected with  insufficiently  controlled  research  work  and  about 
the  possibility  of  the  introduction  of  standardized  lecture 
notes.  I  am  not  saying  that  he  was  not  right  in  his  position 
on  these  matters.  It  may  be  that  we  shall  live  to  see  a  marked 
modification  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  tenure  of 
appointment  of  college  professors,  and  also,  what  now  seems 
incredible,  that  we  shall  all  like  it.  It  is  a  principle  of  Scien- 
tific Management  applied  to  industry  not  to  discharge  men 
right  and  left  to  secure  efficiency,  but  to  select  them  and 
change  them  about  within  the  establishment  until  they  are 
placed  in  positions  for  which  they  are  fitted.  If  the  time  ever 


• 

ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  305 

comes  (as  Mr.  Cooke  hints)  when  professors  are  changed 
about  freely  between  institutions  with  no  stigma  attached, 
so  that  each  finds  just  the  situation  where  he  can  be  most 
successful  and  happy  in  his  work,  we  shall  undoubtedly  wel- 
come the  change.  But  whatever  may  be  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  reconciling  security  of  tenure  of  office  with  teach- 
ing efficiency,  and  whether  or  not  there  is  a  future  for  "stand- 
ardized lecture  notes"  (and  I  think  there  is,  if  by  "lecture 
notes"  we  mean  syllabuses  for  whole  courses),  it  is  certain 
that  it  was  a  mistake  for  Mr.  Cooke  to  say  anything  about 
these  things  in  the  incomplete  way  he  did  at  this  time.  He 
needlessly  set  the  whole  academic  world  and  the  New  York 
Evening  Post  by  the  ears. 

In  the  remainder  of  my  time  permit  me  to  develop  briefly, 
and  in  a  somewhat  dogmatic  form  which  I  hope  you  will 
pardon,  some  suggestions  for  systematized  management  of  our 
colleges,  following  in  most  particulars  the  lead  and  inspiration 
of  Mr.  Cooke.  In  the  first  place  we  need  an  "organization 
chart"  and  an  "organization  record"  showing  clearly  the  line 
of  authority  for  each  individual  together  with  his  duties  in 
detail.  Then,  too,  we  need  far  more  internal  publicity, — the 
publication  for  the  information  of  the  faculty  of  all  sorts  of 
significant  statistics.  But  chief  of  all  we  require  a  careful  anal- 
ysis of  work,  and  differentiation  of  function  in  the  workers. 

We  should  distinguish  between  administration  and  teach- 
ing, and  between  different  sorts  of  administration,  and  should 
always  have  designated  officials  (not  necessarily  in  each  case 
separate  persons)  perform  the  different  functions.  Adminis- 
trative work  which  is  pure  business,  —  the  management  of 
finances,  care  of  buildings  and  grounds,  the  purchasing  of 
routine  supplies  and  the  like  —  should  be  done  entirely  by 
members  of  an  administrative  staff  who  have  no  part  in  the 
work  of  instruction.  The  executive  chief  of  this  group  of 
officials  should  be  the  Treasurer  or  some  representative  of  the 
Treasurer's  office,  such  as  a  Comptroller.  That  part  of 
administration  which  is  not  pure  business,  or  teaching  either, 
but  administration  directly  affected  with  an  academic  interest, 


306  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

should  be  handled  upon  the  principle  of  segregation  of  func- 
tion, but  with  care  taken  not  to  carry  that  principle  too  far. 
Academic  ideals  are  involved;  it  is  essential  that  the  spirit 
of  scholastic  enthusiasm  be  not  blunted  nor  institutional 
unity  destroyed. 

The  general  scope  of  the  institution  being  determined  by  the 
trustees — what  schools  there  shall  be,  leading  to  what  degrees 
— the  work  of  administration  that  overlaps  the  work  of  in- 
struction falls  naturally  into  the  four  following  subdivisions: 

1.  The  function  of  "drafting,"  which  consists  in  organizing 
and  grouping  the  individual  courses  of  instruction  and  making 
the  rules  for  the  students  respecting  their  studies,  —  i.e., 
planning  how  they  shall  "go  through  the  shop,"  what  sort 
of  an  education  they  shall  get.     The  projects  of  law  under 
this  head  should  be  formulated  by  a  standing  committee  of 
the  faculty,  known  as  the  Bureau  of  Design  and  Standards, 
and  enacted  into  law  by  the  whole  faculty. 

2.  The   function    of    "routing   and  despatching,"    which 
consists  in  the  execution  of  the  plans  made  by  those  charged 
with  the  drafting  function  —  the  "enrolment"  of  students, 
the  arrangement  of  the  "hour   plan"  and  similar  things. 
This  work  should  be  done  by  the  Despatcher,  a  non- teaching 
official  of  the  administrative  staff. 

3.  The  function  of  the  determination  of  standards:  stand- 
ards for  admission;  standards  for  promotion  and  graduation; 
standards  for  scholarships  and  other  student  aids;  standards 
of  eligibility  for  playing  on  the  athletic  teams.     The  fixing  of 
these  and  other  standards  should  be  done  by  the  Bureau  of 
Design  and  Standards:  i.e.,  this  faculty  board  should  formu- 
late definite  proposals  which  go  into  effect  only  upon  enact- 
ment by  the  faculty  as  a  whole. 

4.  The  function  of  maintenance  of  standards.     It  is  abso- 
lutely essential  if  standards  are  to  be  maintained  that  this 
function  should  be  discharged  by  members  of  the  adminis- 
trative staff  having  at  the  time  no  work  of  instruction,  al- 
though they  should  have  had  wide  teaching  experience.     The 
point  is  not  so  much  that  active  teachers  will  not  have  time 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  307 

for  this  work,  as  that  they  simply  cannot  do  it  properly. 
They  are  not  expert  and  detached  enough. 

To  indicate  briefly  the  duties  of  the  two  chief  officials  per- 
forming this  class  of  work.  The  Supervisor  of  Admission 
should  have  charge  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  requirements  for 
admission.  Not  only  should  he  attend  to  the  routine  aspects 
of  his  task  with  the  thoroughness  of  an  expert,  but  also  he 
should  magnify  his  office  and  make  himself  fully  acquainted 
with  the  work  of  the  preparatory  schools.  He  should  keep 
records  of  students'  performance  after  entering  college,  clas- 
sified according  to  the  schools  they  come  from  and  accord- 
ing to  the  sort  of  preparation  they  have  had.  He  should 
act  as  an  adviser  to  the  Bureau  of  Design  and  Standards  in 
improving  requirements  and  methods  of  admission.  In  time, 
under  such  a  system,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  all  colleges  will 
admit  upon  the  basis  of  the  whole  record  of  the  student  in  his 
preparatory  school,  rather  than  on  the  basis  of  specifications 
calling  for  particular  studies  and  the  " grades"  in  those  studies. 

Then  there  should  be  the  Inspector  of  Progress  of  Students 
who,  in  the  first  place,  should  have  general  control  over  the 
system  of  examinations  for  matriculates,  —  control  to  the 
extent  of  securing  sufficient  and  reliable  data  as  to  the  work 
of  the  students.  He  should  be  careful,  of  course,  not  to  inter- 
fere unduly  with  the  officers  of  instruction  who  necessarily 
do  the  examining;  but  these  should  not  be  left  free  as  at 
present  to  be  as  much  "out  of  line"  as  they  see  fit.  The 
endeavor  should  be  made  by  the  Inspector  (by  furnishing 
forms  and  clerical  assistance)  to  get  from  the  instructors 
detailed  student  performance  reports,  in  place  of  the  time- 
honored  "grades." 

The  Inspector,  through  his  assistants,  should  obtain  com- 
plete and  accurate  records  of  attendance  of  students.  He 
alone  should  grant  permits  for  exemptions  and  irregularities 
touching  scholastic  work  and  pass  on  all  excuses.  By  means 
of  a  corps  of  official  coaches  (not  necessarily  a  large  and  very 
expensive  body,  as  Mr.  Cooke  points  out)  he  should  show 
deficient  students  how  to  study,  and  ascertain  whether  they 


308  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

are  delinquent  rather  than  merely  slow  and  hard  to  learn. 
With  the  best  of  intentions  many  students  go  through  the 
motions  merely  of  study;  there  is  speed  and  feed  of  a  sort, 
but  no  "depth  of  cut."  Others  are  of  the  sort  that  do  not 
care  and  do  not  try,  and  whose  presence  in  college  is  demoraliz- 
ing to  the  whole  student  body.  With  the  Inspector  should 
be  lodged  the  sole  power  of  dropping  students  and  otherwise 
disciplining  them  individually,  appeal  from  his  decisions 
allowable  only  to  the  President.  If  the  Inspector  is  not  a 
success,  the  President  should  put  a  new  man  in  his  place, 
not  weaken  or  abolish  the  office.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that 
in  most  colleges,  as  Mr.  Cooke  intimates,  this  one  innovation 
alone  would  greatly  reduce  the  amount  of  " spoiled  work"  — 
students  who  needlessly  fall  by  the  way. 

Moreover,  if  in  any  college  the  Inspector  of  Progress  of 
Students  had  his  corps  of  coaches  well  established,  these  men 
could  make  the  unit  time-studies  and  carry  on  other  investi- 
gations which  eventually  would  furnish  the  basis  for  installing 
completely  developed  Scientific  Management.  The  Des- 
patcher  should  not  be  a  mere  rule-of-thumb  functionary,  but 
able  and  enterprising,  and  capable  of  making  improvements 
in  the  art  of  arranging  hour  plans  and  scheduling  students, 
regulars  and  irregulars,  through  their  courses.  Then  it 
would  be  possible  to  introduce  an  automatic  incentive  to 
good  work  which  is  wholly  lacking  under  existing  lock-step 
arrangements  for  promotion  and  graduation.  Colleges  are 
now  like  an  old-style  time-wage  workshop  in  which  the  men 
are  paid  for  their  time,  —  not  for  their  performance  —  and 
the  performance,  for  the  most  part,  is  only  such  as  to  avoid 
by  a  fairly  safe  margin  the  danger  of  dismissal. 

In  this  connection  I  wish  to  endorse  a  suggestion  of  Mr. 
Cooke,  that  there  ought  to  be  a  coach  or  coaches  for  the 
faculty,  especially  for  the  younger  and  less  experienced  mem- 
bers. These  last  need  to  be  shown  how  to  teach  and  properly 
police  their  class-rooms,  and  possible  neglect  of  duty  should 
be  safeguarded.  At  present,  instructors  as  well  as  students 
are  usually  left  altogether  too  much  to  their  own  devices; 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  309 

and  the  hours  for  both  are  often  excessive.  The  work  of 
supervision  of  the  faculty  should  be  done  as  a  regular  thing 
and  not  exceptionally,  and  of  course  under  the  direction 
of  some  person  other  than  the  one  occupying  the  office  of 
Inspector  of  Progress  of  Students. 

There  are  various  other  academic  administrative  functions 
of  importance  that  I  have  no  time  to  deal  with  beyond  urging 
that  as  far  as  possible  in  each  case  they  be  committed  to  the 
charge  of  a  man  rather  than  a  committee.  Many  of  these 
tasks  are  not  so  arduous,  and  do  not  call  for  such  special 
expertness  or  detachment,  that  they  cannot  be  effectively 
performed  by  members  of  the  teaching  staff. 

In  place  of  the  wofully  inefficient,  time-wasting  committee 
system  now  in  vogue  in  colleges,  there  should  be  in  general 
a  ministerial  system,  with  an  inner  circle  of  the  more  important 
ministers  forming  the  President's  Cabinet.  The  Cabinet 
should  meet  regularly  at  least  once  a  week,  with  the  President 
(or  in  his  absence  the  Vice-President)  in  the  chair.  Its  mem- 
bership (varying  at  times  according  to  the  sort  of  business  to 
the  fore)  might  be  as  follows: 

1.  The  Comptroller.    (The  representative  of  the  Treasurer 
—  the  budget  chief,  and  chief  of  the  department  of  material 
services.) 

2.  The   Dean  of   the   Faculty.     (The   supervisor  of   the 
instructors,  not  of  the  students.) 

3.  The  Chairman  of  the  Bureau  of  Design  and  Standards. 

4.  The  Supervisor  of  Admission. 

5.  The  Inspector  of  Progress  of  Students. 

6.  The  Despatcher  (who  might  also  be  Statistician). 

7.  The  Supervisor  of  Health,   Morals,    "Outside- Work" 
and  Living  Conditions  of  the  Students. 

All  legislative  measures  should  be  passed  upon  by  the 
Cabinet  before  presentation  to  the  general  faculty.  Impor- 
tant measures  should  be  amended  only  by  the  Cabinet,  upon 
suggestion  of  the  faculty,  and  then  resubmitted  as  amended 
to  the  faculty.1 

1  For  further  discussion  see  pp.  356,  358,  362-365,  370-376. 


JFfftfi 

FRIDAY  EVENING,  OCTOBER  THE  THIRTEENTH 

CHAIRMAN,  HONORABLE  ROBERT  P.   BASS 

Governor  of  New  Hampshire 


SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT  AND 
GOVERNMENT 

INTRODUCTION  BY  THE  CHAIRMAN 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

I  TAKE  it  that  the  chief  requisite  of  a  presiding  officer 
at  a  meeting  of  this  sort  is  brevity.  This  evening's 
session  of  our  conference  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  appli- 
cation of  business  methods  to  the  government  of  states  and 
we  are  to  be  so  fortunate  as  to  hear  this  subject  discussed 
by  a  man  who  has  not  only  developed  an  efficient  and  sys- 
tematic business  method  of  conducting  the  finances  of  great 
municipalities,  but  also  has  been  able  to  get  his  ideas  actu- 
ally put  into  practice.  In  recognition  of  his  scientific 
achievements  in  this  and  other  directions  he  was  appointed 
by  President  Taft  to  the  chairmanship  of  The  President's 
Commission  on  Economy  and  Efficiency.  I  have  the  honor 
of  introducing  to  you  Dr.  Frederick  A.  Cleveland. 

THE  APPLICATION  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 
TO  THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE   STATE 

BY  FREDERICK  A.  CLEVELAND 

Director  of  the  Bureaus  of  Municipal  Research  of  New  York  and  of  Philadelphia 
Chairman  of  the  President's  Commission  on  Economy  and  Efficiency 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  LADLES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

IT  is  commonly  assumed  that  the  great  public  corporations 
in  which  we  are  all  interested  do  not  lend  themselves  as 
well  to  economic  management  as  do  private  corporations. 
While  experience  has  been  such  as  to  lend  color  to  such  a  con- 
clusion, I  am  convinced  that  there  is  nothing  inherent  in  gov- 

313 


314  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

eminent  which  stands  in  the  way  of  highest  efficiency;  that 
the  fault  has  been  not  in  our  form  of  government  but  in  the 
attitude  of  the  people  towards  the  government.  So  general 
is  the  opinion  that  the  fault  lies  with  the  form  of  government, 
however,  that  before  entering  on  the  subject  of  Scientific 
Management  as  applied  to  the  state,  I  want  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  certain  aspects  of  organization  which  at  least  point 
in  another  direction. 

Scientific  Management,  as  I  understand  the  term,  means 
the  intelligent  direction  and  control  of  affairs,  —  direction 
and  control  based  on  complete,  accurate  and  well-digested 
information.  The  activities  of  the  state  to  which  applica- 
tion is  to  be  made  are  those  activities  which  are  to  be  man- 
aged. That  is,  management  has  to  do  with  the  business 

/  conducted  by  the  administration  as  distinct  from  that  which 
is  conducted  by  the  legislature  and  by  the  courts.  In  so  far 
as  legislation  has  to  do  with  determining  what  is  to  be  done, 

I  however,  this  may  also  be  considered  as  a  part  of  management. 
The  Meaning  of  Scientific  Management.  The  full  meaning 
of  Scientific  Management  is  comprehended  in  the  word 
"planning"  and  in  the  phrase  "the  execution  of  plans."  As 
applied  to  the  state,  "planning"  is  understood  to  mean  the 
intelligent  determination  of: 

1 .  What  work  is  to  be  done. 

2.  What  organization  shall  be  provided. 

3.  What  personnel  is  required. 

4.  What  funds  and  material  and  equipment  are  needed  to 
enable  the  personnel  to  execute  work  efficiently. 

5.  By  what  means  the  funds,  material  and  equipment 
needed  shall  be  obtained. 

"The  execution  of  plans,"  as  distinguished  from  "plan- 
ning," is  understood  to  mean: 

1.  Directing   or    selecting    the   personnel,    the   material, 
equipment,  and  the  technical  methods  employed  in  execut- 
ing each  piece  of  work,  or  "job,"    'hich  is  to  be  undertaken. 

2.  Giving  orders  in  such  form  and  with  such  instruction 
that  they  may  be  understood. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  315 

3.  Inspecting  and  reviewing  each  result  as  a  means  of 
determining  whether  each  order  has  been  properly  executed. 

4.  Obtaining  the  information  needed  to  give  perspective; 
i.e.,  collecting,  classifying  and  summarizing  the  facts  about 
the  business,  and  making  them  available  in  such  form  that 
the  manager  may  at  all  times  see  the  business  as  a  whole. 
The  manager  needs  to  get  the  mental  picture  of  each  condi- 
tion and  result  for  which  he  is  responsible.    He  needs  to  see 
the  net  result  as  well  as  such  detail  as  is  necessary  to  explain 
conditions  and  net  results,  thereby  enabling  him  to  review 
decisions  made,  and  orders  issued;  to  locate  responsibility  for 
failures  and  losses;  to  determine  what  part  of  the  organization 
is  efficient  and  what  part  is  inefficient;  to  know  exactly  what 
has  been  purchased,  what  has  been  paid  for  things  purchased 
and  which  things  are  adapted  to  the  use  for  which  purchased;  to 
ascertain  where  economies  may  be  effected  and  wastes  stopped; 
to  find  out  whether  unsatisfactory  results  are  due  to  failure  on 
the  part  of  those  who  are  "executing"  or  due  to  lack  of  intelli- 
gence on  the  part  of  those  who  are  "planning." 

5.  In  addition  to  these  processes,  and  as  an  incident  to 
Scientific  Management,  he  who  executes   plans  should   also 
report  conditions  and  the  results  of  action  to  those  who  are 
responsible  for  "planning,"  with  recommendations  looking 
towards  a  better  adaptation  of  the  organization  and  material 
equipment  to  the  work  to  be  done,  and  with  estimates  based 
on  experience  setting   forth  the  funds  and  authorizations 
required  to  carry  on  the  business  with  highest  success. 

Assuming    that   this   is  all    comprehended   in    the    term 
scientific  management  of  the  business  of  the  state  and  con- 
sidering the  many  subjects  which  may  come  before  those 
responsible  for  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  it  must  be  appar- 
ent that  several  volumes  might  be  written  without  exhaust- 
ing the  topic  assigned  for  this  address.    You  will  be  relieved, 
therefore,  when  I  say  that  I  do  not  intend  to  discuss  more 
than  one  phase  of  it;  viz?/  the  instruments  of  precision  which  \   .   . 
are  available  to  the  managers  of  public  institutions.    In  fact,   V  V  * 
the  topic  has  been  still  further  narrowed  to  a  few  suggestions 


316  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

pertaining  to  those  instruments  of  precision  which  are  avail- 
able, but  which  have  not  been  generally  used  as  a  means  of 
obtaining  the  information  needed  by  managers  for  accurately 
thinking  about  public  business. 

State  Constitutions  and  Municipal  Charters  Based  on  Principles 
of  Scientific  Management.  Before  taking  up  this  phase  of  the 
information  side  of  the  subject,  however,  may  I  not  be  in- 
dulged in  one  other  general  observation;  viz.,  that  the  institu- 
tions of  democracy  are  cast  on  practically  the  same  lines  as 
are  the  institutions  of  private  business;  that  the  modern 
democratic  state  finds  its  prototype  in  the  modern  private 
business  corporation;  that  in  the  age-long  conflict  between 
autocracy  (or  incorporated  privilege)  and  democracy  (or 
organized  citizenship)  the  devices  which  were  evolved  by 
citizens  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  private  business, 
for  locating  responsibility,  for  "planning  and  the  executing 
of  plans,"  were  insinuated  into  their  charters  of  government; 
until  finally  in  this  country,  at  least,  the  last  vestige  of  legal 
authority  based  on  organized  privilege  was  cast  off,  and  in 
the  reorganization  of  our  institutions  the  citizen  was  given 
the  same  place  and  interest  in  the  public  corporation  that  the 
shareholder  has  in  the  private  corporation. 

It  may  be  of  interest  in  this  relation  hastily  to  review  the 
constitutional  and  charter  provisions  which  have  been  made 
for  Scientific  Management.  The  underlying  theory  of  the 
American  commonwealth  is :  that  it  is  a  highly  refined  trustee- 
ship, in  which  the  citizen  is  both  sovereign  and  beneficiary; 
the  corporation  (the  government)  has  been  incorporated  by 
the  citizen  sovereign  as  his  trustee;  public  welfare  and  public 
funds  and  properties  are  the  entrusted  interest  and  estate. 
In  incorporating  this  governing  agency  every  precaution  has 
been  taken  to  make  the  officers  both  responsive  to  the  sovereign 
will  and  responsible  to  citizenship  for  the  proper  execution  of 
powers  devolving  upon  them.  To  this  end  it  is  provided  that 
the  powers  of  government  shall  be  exercised  by  two  classes, 
an  electorate  and  an  official  class. 

The  purpose  of  the  electorate  is  to  provide  a  non-official 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  317 

class  whose  duties  shall  be  to  determine  and  express  the 
popular  will: 

1.  With  respect  to  all  subjects  having  to  do  with  the  modi- 
fication of   the  articles  of   incorporation  —  the   amendment 
of  Constitution. 

2.  With  respect  to  the  succession  of  governing  agents  — 
the  election  and  recall  of  officers. 

3.  With  respect  to  certain  other  fundamental  questions 
which  are  referred  to  the  people  by  the  official  class,  or  other- 
wise —  the  initiative  and  the  referendum. 

This  is  the  provision  made  by  shareholders  for  regularly 
expressing  their  views  on  subjects  of  common  welfare. 

The  purpose  of  the  official  class  is  to  execute  the  powers 
essential  to  "planning"  and  to  the  "execution  of  plans/'  i.e., 
to  manage  the  estate  for  the  purposes  set  forth  in  the  deed 
of  trust  —  the  Constitution.  To  the  end  that  management 
may  be  scientific  (and  at  the  same  time  both  responsive  and 
responsible  to  citizenship),  our  constitutions  require  the  co- 
operation of  both  legislative  and  administrative  agents  in 
order  to  do  business,  —  i.e.,  the  legislature  must  decide  what 
is  to  be  done,  what  organization  and  equipment  shall  be  pro- 
vided, and  what  funds  should  be  granted;  and  the  adminis- 
trative agents  must  be  relied  on  to  execute  these  plans, 
subject  to  review  by  both  the  legislature  and  the  courts. 

Instruments  of  Precision  Available  to  Public  Officers.  Sci- 
ence assumes,  as  a  basis  for  its  conclusions,  accurate  infor- 
mation. Management,  as  a  subject  to  which  methods  of 
science  are  applied,  is  no  exception.  Accurate  information 
pertaining  to  management  requires  the  use  of  instruments 
of  precision.  Among  the  instruments  of  precision  which 
have  been  invented  for  use  in  management,  and  which  are 
usually  left  out  of  the  list  of  equipment  provided  for  the 
management  of  public  institutions,  are  the  following: 

1.  A  scientific  budget. 

2.  A  balance  sheet. 

3.  An  operation  account. 

4.  A  system  of  detail  cost  and  efficiency  records  and  reports. 


318  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

I  do  not  wish  you  to  understand  that  I  am  suggesting  that 
these  are  all  of  the  instruments  of  precision  available  to  the 
managers  of  state  institutions.  They  are  simply  the  ones 
that  I  have  chosen  for  discussion  this  evening.  In  going  over 
the  general  list  of  processes  which  are  involved  in  planning 
and  in  executing  plans,  it  is  obvious  that  but  few  processes  are 
included  within  these  topics.  They  are  taken,  however,  as 
forming  a  part  of  a  group  having  to  do  with  the  business  of 
government. 

Perhaps  you  think  that  I  have  gone  far  afield  to  speak  of 
these  as  instruments  of  precision;  you  may  question  whether 
they  belong  to  the  same  category  as  micrometers,  speedom- 
eters, thermometers  and  the  like.  On  second  thought, 
however,  I  think  that  you  will  agree  that  for  purpose  of 
management  these  instruments  are  properly  classified. 

The  Budget  as  an  Instrument  of  Precision.  For  institu- 
tional "planning,"  a  scientific  budget  is  the  best  known  and 
most  highly  developed  instrument  of  precision  that  has  yet 
been  devised. 

If  the  legislature  is  to  act  intelligently  on  questions  of 
policy,  and  if  this  branch  of  the  service  is  to  be  held  to  a 
strict  accountability,  there  must  be  some  means  provided 
for  presenting  a  definite  program  to  be  financed;  each  new 
legislature  must  have  laid  before  it  an  accurate  statement 
showing  exactly  what  has  been  done  and  what  is  proposed; 
and  this  statement  should  be  prepared  by  those  who  are  in 
position  to  obtain  accurate  information  as  a  basis  for  official 
judgment  as  well  as  for  the  consideration  of  citizens  whose 
opinions  may  be  expressed  through  publicity  agencies,  peti- 
tion, remonstrances,  etc.,  and  who  express  themselves  authori- 
tatively through  the  electorate.  This  end  is  accomplished  by 
having  a  statement  of  what  has  been  done,  and  of  proposals 
for  future  work,  submitted  by  executive  officers.  The  state- 
ments thus  proposed  are  required  to  be  submitted  to  legisla- 
tive agents  —  those  charged  with  responsibility  for  adopting 
plans;  the  plans  when  adopted  by  the  legislature,  however,  are 
subject  to  veto  or  expressed  disapproval  by  the  "executive." 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  319 

In  view  of  these  provisions,  the  conclusion  seems  fully 
warranted  that  our  state  constitutions  and  municipal  charters 
amply  provide  for  intelligent  and  efficient  "planning,"  and 
for  locating  responsibility  for  unintelligence,  for  neglect  of 
duty,  for  bad  judgment  and  for  failure  to  measure  up  to  the 
requirements. 

That  is  to  say,  those  who  are  responsible  for  administering 
state  governments  and  municipalities,  those  who  are  in  the 
best  position  to  do  so,  are  required  to  submit  in  the  form  of 
a  budget,  a  definite  plan,  or  proposal,  to  be  financed.  The 
estimates  are  required  by  law  to  be  prepared  by  what  we  may 
call  our  "functional  managers."  Those  who  have  to  deal 
with  the  problem  of  protecting  life  and  property,  and  with 
the  preservation  of  order,  are  required  to  present  a  definite 
plan  for  policing;  those  who  are  charged  with  the  technical 
and  highly  expert  methods  required  to  protect  and  promote 
the  health  of  the  state  or  municipality  must  submit  a  definite, 
concrete  plan  for  doing  so,  with  an  estimate  of  what  it  will 
cost;  those  who  are  responsible  for  the  care  of  the  dependent, 
defective  and  delinquent,  for  the  construction  and  mainte- 
nance of  streets,  bridges  and  sewers,  for  the  promotion  of 
education,  art  and  recreation,  for  the  management  of  public 
service  enterprises,  are  required  to  submit  in  detail  their  plans; 
while  those  who  are  responsible  for  the  general  business  and 
finances  of  the  government  are  required  to  assemble  all  these 
details  and  state  them  in  the  form  of  a  budget  of  estimates 
of  expenditures  and  of  revenues  required  to  meet  them. 

If  the  budget  is  scientifically  prepared,  if  it  is  presented 
for  the  consideration  of  the  legislature  and  of  the  people  in 
such  form  that  the  "plan"  proposed  maybe  readily  grasped, 
if  the  facts  are  arranged  in  such  manner  that  complete  infor- 
mation is  readily  available  for  the  consideration  of  every 
question  of  policy  to  be  considered,  then  the  legislature  and 
each  member  may  be  held  responsible  for  the  faithful  and 
efficient  discharge  of  duty.  The  'appropriation  bill,  as  a 
mandate  to  be  executed,  will  mean  something  to  the  executive 
and  to  the  people.  The  executive  will  be  in  the  position  of 


320  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

first  having  submitted  a  plan  for  consideration  and  of  accept- 
ing or  vetoing  a  plan  adopted.  If  passed  over  his  veto,  he 
may  then  accept  responsibility  for  refusing  to  obey  the  man- 
date of  the  legislature,  i.e.,  refusing  to  spend  its  money  for  the 
purposes  authorized;  and  may  go  before  the  people  on  the 
issue  raised. 

In  other  words,  what  I  wish  to  get  before  you  as  a  principle 
is  this:  that  in  the  first  place  our  public  corporations  have 
been  organized  with  a  view  to  planning  and  executing  plans, 
that  our  legislature,  acting  in  the  capacity  of  representative 
of  the  people,  usually  comes  into  office  with  little  experience 
in  governing,  but,  being  responsible  for  deciding  on  plans  to 
be  executed  under  terms  of  public  policy,  in  order  to  make 
such  agency  effective,  finds  it  is  necessary  to  have  the  expert 
agents  of  government  prepare  those  plans  and  submit  them 
to  the  legislature.  By  so  doing,  the  legislature  is  made 
responsible  for  either  accepting  or  rejecting  those  plans  which 
have  been  prepared  by  the  managers.  Having  accepted  the 
plans,  they  assume  responsibility  for  their  acceptance.  Hav- 
ing rejected  the  plans,  the  executive  who  has  prepared  and 
submitted  the  plans  then  has  the  right  to  veto  the  mandate 
of  the  legislature,  which  comes  to  him  in  the  form  of  an 
appropriation  bill.  In  case  his  veto  is  overruled,  then  he 
has  the  right  to  refuse  to  execute  that  mandate  and  go  back 
to  the  people  with  the  issue.  In  the  State  of  New  Hamp- 
shire and  in  some  other  states,  he  may  prorogue  the  legislature 
to  get  the  issue  before  the  people.  Where  there  is  no  power 
of  prorogation,  the  question  goes  over  till  the  next  legisla- 
ture, unless  the  people  have  a  recall  or  some  other  method 
of  holding  officers  to  responsibility. 

As  an  instrument  of  precision  the  budget  has  not  been 
properly  used.  Both  governing  agents  and  the  people  have 
been  without  a  conscious  program  of  government.  Esti- 
mates required  by  law  are  submitted  as  a  mass  of  technical 
detail;  they  are  not  prepared  in  such  manner  that  they 
may  be  classified  and  summarized;  they  are  not  presented 
in  the  form  of  a  program  or  prospectus  which  may  be 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  321 

seen  in  perspective  and  understood  by  the  layman,  or  even 
by  a  large  majority  of  the  officers  themselves.  The  result  is 
that  management  is  necessarily  unscientific  and  disappoint- 
ing; work  is  authorized  by  the  legislature,  organization  is 
provided  for  work  and  funds  are  voted  in  response  to  per- 
sonal pressure  and  expressions  of  local  interest;  welfare 
questions  are  settled  without  regard  to  the  consideration  of 
public  policy,  and  in  such  manner  that  they  may  not  be 
publicly  discussed;  laws  are  made,  appropriations  are  passed 
and  conditions  attached  to  authorizations  to  spend,  on  pri- 
vate understandings  and  by  a  scheme  of  legislative  "log- 
rolling." 

Instruments  of  Precision  for  Use  of  Executive  Officers.  As 
has  been  suggested,  the  budget  is  an  instrument  of  precision 
for  use  in  legislative  "planning,"  —  a  prospectus  of  busi- 
ness. The  estimate  is  designed  for  the  purpose  of  out- 
lining a  definite  administrative  proposal  as  a  basis  for 
action.  The  act  of  appropriation  is  in  the  nature  of  a  man- 
date of  the  policy-determining  branch.  This  instrument 
has  been  devised  by  representatives  of  the  people,  in  conflict 
with  those  who  represented  organized  and  incorporated  privi- 
lege under  a  regime  of  monarchy.  The  budget  is  seldom  used 
in  the  management  of  private  business.  The  other  instru- 
ments of  precision  to  which  attention  is  asked  are  primarily 
for  the  information  of  those  who  are  charged  with  "executing 
plans."  They  have  been  designed  and  developed  in  their 
best  form  by  managers  of  private  enterprises. 

The  balance  sheet  is  an  instrument  to  be  used  by  one  who, 
though  accountable  for  every  act  of  subordinates,  as  for  a 
trust,  is  far  removed  from  the  varied  activities  and  details 
which  make  up  the  business  that  he  dominates;  it  is  an 
instrument  by  means  of  which  the  manager  responsible  for 
the  execution  of  the  plans  and  policies  of  the  corporation  may 
have  his  attention  directed  to  subjects  of  immediate  adminis- 
trative concern.  As  an  instrument  of  precision  it  is  quite  as 
available  and  quite  as  useful  to  a  state  or  municipal  officer 
as  to  the  head  of  a  private  corporation.  To  the  manager  it 


322  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

serves  the  same  purpose  as  the  contour  map  and  chart  of 
movements  to  the  military  leader;  by  this  means  the  officer 
is  able  to  watch  in  perspective  the  varied  activities  around 
him;  to  give  direction  and  to  relate  this  perspective  to  the 
conditions  surrounding  and  results  following  each  movement; 
in  short,  the  purpose  of  the  balance  sheet  is  to  serve  the 
manager  as  an  instrument  for  determining  at  all  times  both 
present  condition  and  net  result,  —  to  give  to  him  a  sense  of 
proportion  and  relation  that  he  can  gain  in  no  other  way. 

As  an  instrument  of  precision  for  reflecting  present  financial 
conditions,  the  balance  sheet  is  adapted  to  giving  not  only 
the  relation  of  resources  to  liabilities  and  surplus  to  deficit, 
but  also  to  reflecting  present  conditions  of  appropriations  and 
other  authorizations  to  incur  liabilities  and  to  spend.  By 
the  use  of  a  balance  sheet,  the  officer  may  have  prompt, 
complete  and  accurate  information  needed  for  thinking  about 
every  financial  relation  within  his  control. 

Notwithstanding  the  general  use  of  the  balance  sheet  by 
officers  of  private  corporations,  it  is  seldom  employed  by  offi- 
cers of  states  and  municipalities.  In  not  being  provided  with 
such  an  instrument,  they  are  seriously  handicapped  by  a  lack  of 
means  to  obtain  prompt,  accurate  and  complete  information. 
The  state  or  municipality  is  made  less  efficient  as  an  agency 
of  welfare,  the  people  are  without  the  data  needed  for  the 
consideration  of  matters  of  serious  importance  pertaining  to 
business  in  hand  and  legislators  are  without  the  information 
necessary  to  the  consideration  of  future  plans. 

Another  important  instrument  of  business  precision  which 
has  been  developed  by  private  experience  and  which  is  avail- 
able to  the  managers  of  state  institutions  is  the  operation 
account.  This  is  a  form  of  statement  showing  on  the  one 
side  the  cost  incurred  in  conducting  each  branch  of  business, 
and  on  the  other  side  the  income  accrued  to  meet  this  cost. 
The  operation  account  was  devised  because  of  the  inaccuracy 
and  incompleteness  of  statements  of  cash  receipts  and  cash 
disbursements.  Costs  may  be  incurred  which  have  not  yet 
been  paid;  income  may  be  accrued  which  has  not  yet  been 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  323 

collected;  payments  may  be  made  in  advance;  revenues 
may  be  prepaid;  and  in  the  cash  there  may  be  receipts  and 
payments  that  have  nothing  to  do  with  either  expenditure 
or  income. 

The  inaccuracies  and  incompleteness  of  the  data  pertain- 
ing to  the  relation  of  cost  to  income,  when  taken  from  accounts 
showing  transactions  in  cash,  are  even  more  striking  in  state 
and  municipal  business:  taxes  may  not  be  collected  for  many 
years;  the  expenses  may  be  largely  paid  out  of  borrowings; 
the  revenues  accrued  are  usually  collectable,  but  if  not  col- 
lected, accounts  and  reports  which  are  based  on  receipts  may 
lead  officers  far  afield,  i.e.,  may  be  the  cause  of  reaching 
unsound  and  dangerous  conclusions.  Notwithstanding  this 
fact,  few  public  corporations  have  provided  their  officers  with 
such  an  instrument  of  precision.  Government  managers  are 
supposed  to  think,  act  and  direct  with  judgment,  without 
exact  knowledge  of  the  relation  between  cost  of  operation 
and  income  to  meet  this  cost. 

Much  has  been  said  of  late  about  the  need  for  increased 
economy  and  efficiency  in  the  management  of  public  affairs. 
Generally  speaking,  the  officer  is  charged  with  any  action 
taken  which  may  result  in  waste,  whether  this  be  from  the 
character  of  purchases  made,  or  the  character  of  work  per- 
formed. Few  have  asked  themselves  the  question  whether 
the  officer  is  adequately  equipped  with  instruments  of  pre- 
cision for  determining  and  having  regularly  brought  to  his 
attention  evidence  of  waste  and  inefficiency. 

Generally  speaking,  a  person  who  enjoys  the  confidence  and 
respect  of  his  fellows,  who  has  attained  marked  success  in  the 
management  of  private  affairs,  when  elected  to  office  finds 
himself  without  the  means  of  knowing  what  is  being  bought; 
what  price  is  being  paid;  whether  the  thing  purchased  is 
adapted  to  use;  whether  things  purchased  and  paid  for  are 
actually  delivered ;  whether  the  things  delivered  are  used  and 
properly  accounted  for;  whether  employees  are  efficient  or 
inefficient,  faithful  or  faithless;  what  is  the  cost  of  any 
product  or  job;  and  what  is  the  relation  of  cost  to  result. 


324  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

I  think  Governor  Bass  will  agree  with  me  in  the  statement 
that,  when  a  new  executive  first  sits  down  in  front  of  the  official 
desk,  he  finds  the  same  stream  of  business  flowing  over  his 
desk  the  first  day  he  enters  office  that  flowed  over  it  the  day 
before  his  predecessor  left  office.  In  taking  office  he  usually 
takes  up  a  new  business.  He  has  been  chosen  to  office 
because  the  people  believe  in  him,  but  it  is  not  assumed  that 
he  has  any  knowledge  of  the  business  to  which  he  has  been 
elected  or  for  which  he  is  responsible.  With  this  stream  of 
business  demanding  immediate  attention  and  concerning 
which  he  knows  nothing,  he  must  sign  and  sign;  the  official 
signature  must  be  attached  hour  after  hour,  day  after  day 
and  month  after  month,  or  business  will  stop;  he  must  sign, 
relying  either  on  the  verbal  statements  or  perhaps  on  the 
initial  of  some  one  in  the  office  who  says,  "It's  all  right, 
Governor;  it's  all  right.  Please  sign  here." 

In  this  situation  he  is  asked  each  day  to  make  decisions, 
give  orders,  execute  contracts,  sign  vouchers  for  the  expendi- 
ture of  public  moneys,  release  fidelity  and  surety  bonds,  — 
to  do  all  these  things  on  the  verbal  statements  or  initials  of 
subordinates,  without  the  means  of  obtaining  the  data  neces- 
sary to  the  location  of  responsibility  for  misstatements  of 
fact  or  for  the  administration  of  discipline.  On  the  other 
hand,  subordinates  are  without  the  protection  of  a  record 
earned.  The  whole  plan  of  business  organization  and  method 
is  on  a  plane  of  personal  relation  and  ignorance,  instead  of 
on  the  plane  of  a  system  of  merit  and  intelligence. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  said  that  both  governing  agents 
and  citizens,  electors  and  non-electors,  are  without  any  con- 
scious constructive  program  of  government.  Though  an 
electorate  has  been  created  to  enforce  responsibility,  it  is 
without  facts;  the  people  cannot  hold  legislators  respon- 
sible for  failure  properly  to  represent  the  people;  legislators, 
responsible  for  determining  questions  of  policy  and  voting 
funds,  are  both  without  a  well-defined  plan  or  program  to 
consider,  and  without  the  information  necessary  to  the  con- 
sideration of  questions  of  policy;  the  officers  responsible  for 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  325 

the  execution  of  policies  and  mandates  of  the  legislature, 
under  acts  of  appropriation,  are  without  the  proper  instru- 
ments of  precision  for  obtaining  prompt,  complete  and  accurate 
information  about  the  business  in  hand.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, it  goes  without  saying  that  the  affairs  of  the 
government  cannot  be  scientifically  managed,  —  that  is,  under 
present  conditions  public  business,  whether  national,  state  or 
municipal,  cannot  be  intelligently  directed  and  controlled. 

Generally  speaking,  the  budget  should  raise  every  question 
of  policy  pertaining  to  decisions  as  to  what  should  be  done, 
what  organization  should  be  provided  for  doing  the  thing 
which  is  decided  on  and  what  character  of  expenditure  should 
be  financed.  So  far  as  I  know,  there  is  not  a  state  in  the 
United  States  that  gets  before  the  legislature  through  its 
experts,  i.e.,  through  the  administration,  the  information 
necessary  to  the  consideration  of  any  of  these  questions. 
Suppose  that  the  subject  be  one  of  public  health.  What 
information  has  the  legislature  on  which  to  decide  questions 
of  policy?  In  order  to  determine  what  plan  should  be  made 
with  respect  to  public  health,  they  should  know  not  only  what 
is  being  done  at  the  present  time  by  the  state,  by  the  munici- 
pality, by  the  federal  government  in  matters  of  health,  but 
they  should  know  also  the  needs  of  the  people  with  respect 
to  health.  They  should  know  what  part  of  that  need  is  being 
met  and  what  part  is  not  being  met.  Questions  of  policing, 
questions  of  sewage,  questions  of  transportation,  of  housing, 
of  what  not,  must  be  approached  in  the  same  manner.  The 
fact  is  that  the  legislator,  not  being  able  to  see  the  problem 
which  is  presented,  cannot  think  of  it  properly  in  terms  of 
work  to  be  done,  what  organization  should  be  provided,  and 
what  character  of  expenditure  should  be  made;  he  cannot 
determine  what  amount  is  needed  for  current  expenses  or  for 
fixed  charges  or  for  capital  outlays.  There  are  very  few  of 
our  public  corporations  that  have  even  a  list  of  their  proper- 
ties, to  say  nothing  of  information  concerning  what  is  needed 
to  serve  the  public  in  matters  of  health,  or  education,  or  any 
other  subject  of  public  interest.  There  are  some  of  our 


326  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

public  corporations  which  have  been  so  ignorant  of  what  they 
owned  that  they  have  bid  in  their  own  property  at  a  tax  sale. 
Others  have  bought  sites  for  schoolhouses  in  the  same  block 
in  which  some  other  department  had  property  which  had 
been  lying  idle  for  twenty  years.  When  public  business  is  run 
on  such  a  plane  as  this,  and  when  the  legislator  does  not  have 
presented  to  him  the  facts  necessary  to  a  proper  consideration 
of  a  subject,  we  cannot  expect  intelligent  action  on  the  part  of 
the  legislator,  nor  can  we  hold  him  responsible  for  failure  to 
act  intelligently  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties. 

Very  few  private  corporations  have  undertaken  to  finance 
a  business  which  places  a  greater  burden  of  responsibility  on 
the  management  than  does  the  modern  public  corporation. 
Yet  the  officers  elected  to  direct  and  control  the  business  of 
a  government  are  handicapped  in  a  manner  which  would  at 
once  mark  them  for  immediate  failure  as  managers  of  a  pri- 
vate corporation.  When  so  inadequately  provided  with 
instruments,  what  is  more  natural  than  that  those,  who  by 
reason  of  their  previous  successes,  have  been  honored  by 
electors  with  positions  of  public  trust,  should  retire  dis- 
credited; and  under  such  circumstances,  what  else  is  to  be 
expected  than  that  voters  who  have  elected  men  to  office, 
finding  them  discredited,  should  turn  to  others  who  make 
new  promises,  —  and  who,  when  elected,  themselves  become 
quite  as  helpless  as  their  predecessors?  With  rare  exceptions, 
election  to  public  office  has  been  a  sentence  to  political  death. 
In  each  case,  the  man  of  good  motive  who  has  gone  out 
of  office  discredited,  has  been  the  victim  of  institutional 
methods  which  spell  inefficiency.  Not  only  as  officers,  there- 
fore, but  also  as  citizens,  are  we  all  interested  in  placing  in 
the  hands  of  public  officials  such  instruments  of  precision  as 
will  enable  them  to  have  the  same  basis  for  intelligent  direc- 
tion and  control,  the  same  means  of  protecting  responsibility 
and  for  "making  good"  for  the  benefit  of  the  public,  as 
have  been  made  available  to  him  when  working  for  the 
benefit  of  private  stockholders. 

The  Causes  of  Popular  Despondency.    Notwithstanding  this 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  327 

splendid  plan  for  making  government  management  intelligent 
and  for  making  governing  agents  responsible  and  responsive, 
the  American  commonwealth  has  suffered  more  from  igno- 
rance, irresponsiveness  and  irresponsibility  during  the  last 
half-century,  than  have  many  of  the  monarchies  of  Europe. 
Furthermore,  the  welfare  of  the  people  has  not  been  carefully 
guarded,  the  entrusted  estate  has  been  wasted,  the  activities 
of  the  government  have  been  inefficiently  managed  and 
powers  of  government  have  been  systematically  prostituted 
to  private  and  partizan  ends. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  enumerate  all  of  the  causes,  but  may 
I  not  suggest  that  one  of  the  conditions  giving  rise  to  popular 
disappointment  has  been  lack  of  exact  knowledge,  —  to  put 
it  baldly,  has  been  both  popular  and  official  ignorance?  Since 
neither  the  people  in  their  capacity  of  sovereign  or  in  their 
capacity  as  beneficiary,  nor  their  official  agents  in  the  capacity 
of  trustees,  have  worked  out  any  well-considered  plan  of  busi- 
ness, our  people  have  had  no  sovereign  will  to  be  expressed; 
the  electorate  has  not  and  cannot  record  opinion;  our  institu- 
tions, national  and  state,  have  been  running  a  fortuitous 
course  in  the  dark,  directed  by  officers  without  a  compass 
and  without  a  sailing  chart. 

Under  a  plan  of  political  organization  which  rests  on  citizen 
sovereignty;  which  takes  its  managers  (both  those  who 
"plan"  and 'those  who  "execute  plans")  periodically  from  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  people;  in  which  the  legislature  must 
depend  on  expressions  of  popular  will  for  support  to  policies 
determined,  and  executives  must  depend  for  success  on  support 
which  comes  from  the  people  through  an  electorate;  the 
information  on  which  judgment  and  action  are  based  must 
reach  through  the  officer  to  the  people,  for  whose  benefit 
institutions  are  organized  and  maintained. 

And  until  the  instruments  of  precision  which  are  available 
for  this  purpose  are  properly  used,  let  us  not  speak  disrespect- 
fully of  the  "political  boss."  Under  present  conditions  the 
"boss"  is  the  most  scientific  citizen  that  we  have.  In  the 
large  cities,  the  "political  boss"  is  the  only  one  who  in  any 


328  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

manner  represents  organized  citizenship.  True,  his  guiding 
motives  may  not  be  public  welfare,  but  until  the  present 
at  least,  "the  boss"  has  had  a  clearer  concept  of  the  essential 
factors  of  democracy  than  has  "the  reformer."  He  has  the 
astuteness  to  see  the  need  for  keeping  himself  informed  con- 
cerning community  wants;  he  is  the  only  one  who  has  made 
it  his  business  to  supply  community  needs;  he  is  the  only 
one  who  has  had  a  definite,  and  at  times,  comprehensive 
citizen  program.  He  makes  provisions  for  systematic  contact 
with  citizen  activities,  citizen  opinion,  citizen  interest  and 
citizen  needs,  in  order  that  he  may  have  the  information 
necessary  to  win  suffrages  of  a  less  well-informed  electorate, 
that  he  may  obtain  for  himself  and  for  his  organization 
patronage  through  which  to  gain  the  contact  needed  for  the 
exercise  of  the  powers  which  will  permit  the  use  of  funds  and 
properties  entrusted  to  officers  of  governments,  and  to  avail 
of  these  for  partizan  and  personal  ends. 

"The  boss"  makes  citizenship  his  business.  The  men  and 
women  whose  interests  are  to  be  served  have  not  as  yet 
recognized  the  need  for  a  definite  plan  or  program  to  be 
executed;  they  have  not  demanded,  nor  has  the  legislature 
as  their  representatives  provided,  the  means  whereby  those 
who  execute  may  cooperate  under  scientific  management  in 
executing  a  plan  or  program.  The  business  of  citizens,  as 
citizens,  has  not  been  seriously  and  intelligently  undertaken, 
and  the  powers  of  the  electorate  have  not  been  intelligently 
and  effectively  used  to  support  those  in  office  who  are  inter- 
ested in  the  honest,  efficient  and  economic  management  of 
public  affairs.  Officers  have  undertaken  to  discharge  their 
duties  under  a  handicap  that  makes  the  highest  success 
impossible.  So  long  as  this  condition  obtains,  the  best  solu- 
tion that  democracy  can  offer  state  and  municipal  govern- 
ment is  domination  by  "  the  boss."  Under  present  conditions 
it  must  be  conceded  that  popular  sovereignty  has  been  a 
vicarious  reign  —  an  idealistic  dream;  that  "boss  rule"  has 
been  the  reality;  that  our  popular  sovereign  is  still  in  infancy; 
that  our  state  regent  is  the  "political  boss";  that  the  differ- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  329 

ence  in  principle  between  North  American  democracy  and 
Spanish  American  democracy  has  been  that  in  Spanish 
America  the  "political  boss"  has  established  his  office  in  the 
state-house  or  in  the  town  hall,  while  in  the  United  States  a 
willing  or  unwilling  tool  of  "  the  boss/'  receiving  the  suffrages 
of  an  ignorant  electorate,  has  given  the  stamp  of  approval 
to  official  acts,  —  the  real  business  of  the  government  being 
done  in  a  private  office  outside  of  the  state-house  or  town 
hall. 

Gov.  BASS:  This  will  close  our  session  this  evening  unless 
there  are  questions  which  you  care  to  ask  of  Dr.  Cleveland. 
He  has  kindly  offered  to  answer  any  questions  which  you  may 
have  to  put. 

QUESTION:  I  should  like  to  ask  him  what  we  are  going 
to  do  about  it? 

MR.  CLEVELAND:  It  occurs  to  me  that,  notwithstanding 
all  of  the  discouragement  that  has  been  expressed  about  the 
manner  in  which  our  government  affairs  have  been  conducted, 
we  can  look  forward  with  a  great  deal  of  confidence  to  the 
future.  In  the  first  place,  citizenship  has  been  aroused.  The 
first  one  hundred  years  of  experience  in  the  United  States 
was  one  which  caused  the  citizen  to  think  of  the  government 
as  an  institution  that  had  been  organized  and  maintained  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  him  something  of  money  value.  The 
government  had  inherited  from  England  a  continent  of  nat- 
ural resources.  In  the  minds  of  the  people  the  government 
existed  primarily  to  distribute  public  lands,  to  give  away 
farms,  to  give  away  mines,  to  give  away  corporate  privi- 
leges. All  of  the  interests  which  dominated  our  political 
society  were  organized  on  the  theory  of  getting  something 
out  of  the  government  for  little  or  nothing, — something  which 
would  contribute  to  private  gain.  The  organization  of  cor- 
porations to  obtain  subsidies  and  privileges,  the  formation  of 
political  parties  for  spoils  and  private  appeals  for  personal 
advantage  to  be  obtained  through  "pull"  were  simply  ways 
of  getting  it.  At  the  present  time  citizenship  in  the  United 
States  has  begun  to  take  a  new  view  of  the  situation.  Amer- 


330  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

ican  citizenship  has  awakened  to  the  fact  that  there  are  few 
of  these  large  and  valuable  Christmas  presents  to  be  handed 
out  each  year.  Our  public  lands  have  become  private  lands. 
Our  people  are  now  going  to  Canada  for  free  homesteads, 
preemption  rights  and  so  on.  They  used  to  go  to  Canada 
for  other  reasons.  Public  franchises  have  largely  been  con- 
verted into  private  proprietorships.  As  a  people,  we  have 
suddenly  awakened  to  the  thought  that  this  splendid  indiffer- 
ence to  the  value  of  our  national  inheritance  as  a  public  re- 
source has  been  a  mistake;  that  private  ownership  in  many 
instances  means  monopoly,  —  we  call  it  vicious  monopoly 
when  some  one  person  or  corporation  owns  more  than  is  ordi- 
narily held  or  owned  by  a  single  man.  I  do  not  mean  to  sug- 
gest that  there  is  anything  in  private  ownership  to  be  feared, 
but  there  has  been  something  in  the  attitude  of  the  public 
mind  which  necessarily  must  change.  Now  that  all  of  the 
things  that  the  government  can  give  away  have  been  exhausted, 
we  have  suddenly  awakened  to  the  fact  that  99  per  cent  of 
us  need  protection  against  the  other  i  per  cent;  that  the  gov- 
ernment is  the  only  organization  capable  of  affording  the 
protection  needed  without  a  popular  uprising  which  would 
disturb  all  of  the  conditions  essential  to  social  progress  and 
cooperative  activity.  We  are  beginning  to  appreciate  what  a 
welfare  institution  means  and  what  its  functions  should  be. 
We  are  beginning  to  see  that  the  government  has  some  pur- 
pose, and  that  laissez  faire  should  no  longer  dominate  our 
politics.  With  this  situation  present,  with  public  opinion 
suddenly  converted  to  the  notion  that  the  government 
should  do  something  instead  of  doing  nothing  (except  give 
away  property) ;  with  the  assembling  of  vast  populations  in 
centers  where  the  individual,  from  his  relative  impotence, 
becomes  the  victim  of  social  neglect  unless  the  government 
steps  in  to  protect  him;  with  an  environment  which  makes 
the  individual  the  easy  victim  of  contagious  and  communi- 
cable diseases,  of  accidents  and  other  disasters  incident  to 
living  in  crowded  centers;  the  American  people  have  begun  to 
see  that  their  government  is  the  one  institution  on  which  they 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  331 

must  rely.  This  idea  being  paramount  in  the  minds  of  the 
people,  every  party  —  we  may  say  it  is  a  non-partizan  notion 
—  demands  of  the  government  efficiency;  demands  economy 
that  will  not  permit  of  the  waste  of  public  funds  entrusted 
to  officers  for  your  protection  and  for  mine;  demands  that 
proper  use  be  made  of  the  properties  and  equipment  which 
have  been  procured  with  public  funds  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
serving health  or  for  promoting  education,  the  maintenance 
of  law  and  order,  for  providing  people  with  transportation 
and  other  facilities  essential  to  the  common  welfare.  With 
this  idea  paramount  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  it  seems  to 
me  that  we  have  an  outlook  quite  different  from  any  which 
we  have  had  before,  and  that  this  outlook  is  in  the  direction 
of  the  interests  which  we  may  call  general  welfare  as  dis- 
tinct from  those  interests  which  are  private  or  personal  in 
character. 

What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  We  are  going  tc&use 
the  instruments  which  have  been  found  useful  in  private 
business  for  accomplishing  these  ends.  We  are  not  only 
going  to  plan  the  work  of  the  institution  hi  relation  to  the 
society  which  it  serves,  but  we  are  also  going  to  plan  each 
step  in  the  execution  of  the  plan.  In  other  words,  we  shall 
have  a  planning  executive  as  well  as  a  planning  legislature, 
and  we  shall  have  an  intelligent  executive  as  well  as  an  intelli- 
gent legislature,  because  the  government  will  be  premised  on 
the  planning  of  an  intelligent  people.  That  is  what  I  think 
we  must  look  forward  to,  and  may  look  forward  to  with 
confidence.  In  planning  our  scheme  of  government,  we  must 
think,  not  of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  or  of  the  village  of 
Hanover,  because  the  governing  of  the  citizen  of  Hanover  is 
the  governing  of  this  town  plus  that  of  the  state,  plus  that  of 
the  United  States.  Our  plan  of  business  is  a  threefold,  cor- 
porate plan;  at  least  threefold, — sometimes  twentyfold;  each 
one  of  these  corporations  having  been  organized  to  take  a  part 
in  the  business  which  we  consider  essential  for  our  welfare. 
In  considering,  therefore,  our  plans  and  policies,  we  must 
necessarily  know  what  the  government  of  the  United  States 


332  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

is  doing  for  the  citizen  of  Hanover,  what  the  state  of  New 
Hampshire  is  doing  for  the  citizen  of  Hanover,  in  order  to 
decide  what  the  precinct  commissioners  should  do  for  the 
citizen  of  Hanover.  We  must  not  only  see  our  public  business 
as  a  comprehensive  scheme,  but  we  must  have  the  means  of 
knowing  what  is  being  done,  and  to  an  extent  what  has  been 
done.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  same  problem  as  is  before 
the  stockholder  of  the  corporation,  who  a  few  years  ago 
awakened  to  the  fact  that  he  had  interests  to  protect.  We 
have  had  the  various  investigations  looking  towards  better 
administration  of  life  insurance,  better  administration  of  rail- 
roads, better  administration  of  banks,  better  administration 
of  every  kind  of  quasi-public  corporation  as  well  as  private 
corporation.  We  shall  simply  have  to  apply  the  same  prin- 
ciples to  our  public  corporation  that  we  have  applied  to  our 
quasi-public  and  private  enterprises. 

QUESTION:  I  should  like  to  ask  Dr.  Cleveland  what  steps 
should  be  taken  to  put  this  information  in  the  hands  of  the 
executives  and  the  people;  whether  these  steps  should  be 
taken  by  the  citizens  or  by  those  elected  to  office? 

MR.  CLEVELAND:  It  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Chairman,  that 
primarily  those  who  are  in  position  to  develop  information 
are  those  who  have  the  instruments  for  collecting,  recording, 
summarizing  and  reporting  information;  in  other  words, 
the  instruments  of  accounting  which  bring  together  facts, 
coordinate  facts  and  present  facts  in  such  form  that  their 
significance  can  be  understood.  Perhaps  the  questioner  has 
in  mind  some  of  those  enterprises  with  which  I  have  been 
associated  during  the  last  few  years.  During  the  last  few 
years  I  have  been  closely  associated  with  a  number  of  citizen 
organizations.  And  I  speak  of  this  simply  to  illustrate  a 
point  which  the  questioner  evidently  had  in  mind  —  what 
can  the  citizen  do?  In  organizing  the  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research  in  New  York  and  also  that  in  Philadelphia,  these 
two  agencies  being  supported  by  private  funds,  the  theory 
was  this:  that  the  existing  agencies  of  citizenship  (and  there 
are  many  of  them,  —  some  2,000  of  various  kinds  in  Philadel- 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  333 

phia  alone)  have  not  been  developed  for  the  primary  purpose 
of  making  the  citizen  more  effective  in  his  relation  to  the 
government.  The  fact  is  that  nearly  every  other  kind  of 
public  interest  has  been  made  the  subject  of  organization, 
but  that  practically  all  of  the  activities  of  the  government  as 
such  have  been  left  out  of  consideration.  In  other  words, 
each  of  these  societies  has  a  highly  specialized  theme,  such  as 
the  administration  of  private  charity,  the  promotion  of  edu- 
cation and  morals,  the  welfare  of  immigrants,  etc.  Each  of 
these  is  interested  incidentally  in  what  the  government  is 
doing  with  respect  to  its  particular  cause,  but  not  to  the  extent 
of  finding  out  what  are  the  methods  and  processes  employed, 
and  whether  the  service  might  do  it  more  economically  and 
efficiently. 

Certain  clubs  have  been  organized,  called  city  clubs,  which 
have  a  broad  outlook.  Each  has  attempted  to  consider  the 
work  of  its  city  as  a  whole,  each  has  organized  many  com- 
mittees for  the  consideration  of  special  subjects,  but  not  one 
of  these  organizations,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  ever  organ- 
ized or  provided  itself  with  the  means  for  obtaining  infor- 
mation about  technical  processes.  Those  of  you  who  are 
engaged  in  business  know  that  exact  knowledge  of  details  is 
the  only  safe  basis  for  judgment.  Notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  our  public  corporations  have  the  most  involved,  complex 
and  technical  business  problems  which  may  be  found,  citizens 
have  assumed  that  they  could  get  together  and  by  the  ex- 
change of  opinions  about  the  duties  of  citizenship  and  other 
subjects  which  are  highly  theoretical  and  philosophical,  — 
that  by  some  such  methods  the  problem  of  community  busi- 
ness may  be  solved.  The  action  and  attitude  of  the  average 
city  club  is  about  as  helpful  to  the  officer  who  is  charged  with 
responsibility  for  the  management  of  the  city  as  would  be  a 
meeting  of  citizens  who  would  come  together  at  a  dinner  and 
pass  resolutions  concerning  the  management  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  those  who 
participate  in  such  touch-and-go  proceedings  cannot  have 
knowledge  about  the  management  of  a  city  or  of  a  railroad; 


334  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

neither  can  citizens  who  get  together  and  pass  resolutions 
about  the  government  take  up  any  matter  intelligently,  unless 
they  have  provided  themselves  with  some  agency  by  means 
of  which  the  technical  problem  may  be  studied. 

Having  participated  in  the  work  of  many  such  committees, 
having  become  conscious  of  the  ignorance  with  which  subjects 
of  public  concern  are  approached  and  having  come  to  know 
the  damage  which  is  often  done  to  a  good  cause  by  unintelli- 
gent citizen  action;  the  conclusion  was  reached  by  a  few  men 
in  New  York  that  citizenship  could  not  hope  to  become  effect- 
ive in  the  exercise  of  its  sovereign  powers  until  citizen  duty 
and  governmental  responsibility  should  become  subjects  of 
inquiry;  until  organized  means  should  be  provided  for  know- 
ing definitely  what  are  the  needs  of  the  community  which 
should  be  served  by  the  government;  what  the  government 
is  doing  to  meet  these  ends;  what  is  its  organization;  what  the 
conditions  surrounding  its  personnel;  what  the  technical  proc- 
esses employed;  what  the  results  being  obtained.  In  other 
words,  it  was  thought  that  as  a  matter  of  duty,  citizenship 
should  provide  for  itself  the  same  kind  of  an  organization  for 
house-cleaning  as  did  the  life  insurance  companies  at  the 
time  they  were  under  legislative  investigation. 

Every  citizen  of  the  United  States  has  a  right  of  access  to 
public  records.  Every  citizen,  therefore,  has  a  right  to  in- 
form himself  and  to  use  the  information  obtained  from  rec- 
ords for  the  information  of  his  fellows.  But  the  trouble  is 
this:  that  even  though  a  particular  citizen  has  free  access  and 
gives  all  of  his  time  to  the  consideration  of  questions  of  citizen 
duty,  the  government  is  so  highly  complex  in  organization  and 
technical  in  requirements  that  he  will  do  well  if  he  comes  to 
understand  one  of  its  problems  in  such  manner  that  he  can 
think  about  it  with  intelligence.  This  is  a  condition  which 
must  be  faced.  If  citizenship  is  to  be  effective,  citizens  must  use 
their  power  of  independent  inquiry;  but  they  must  organize 
for  using  it.  It  has  been  upon  such  a  theory  that  bureaus  of 
municipal  research  have  been  organized  and  supported.  The 
fundamental  or  charter  rights  of  such  organizations  are: 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  335 

1.  The  right  of  access  to  such  records. 

2.  The  right  of  free  speech  and  free  press. 

3.  The  duty  which  a  citizen  organization  has  to  support 
the  hands  of  the  officer,  —  to  stand  back  of  the  man  who 
wishes  to  do  what  is  right,  and  in  front  of  the  man  who  wishes 
to  do  what  is  wrong. 

The  government  agent  should  be  called  upon  to  produce 
such  information  as  may  be  currently  or  regularly  reported. 
He  should  be  called  upon  to  furnish  this  not  only  to  the  exec- 
utive officer  and  to  the  legislature,  but  also  to  the  citizen; 
the  administration  should  be  called  upon  to  lay  before  the 
legislature  and  the  people  a  definite  program  to  be  financed, 
and  the  legislature  should  be  held  responsible  for  the  way  in 
which  it  acts  on  such  a  program.  This  information  should 
be  supplemented  by  statements  of  fact  showing  records  of 
performance  and  results  which  may  be  appraised  in  terms  of 
standards  based  on  concepts  of  welfare.  Alongside  of  an 
official  agency  should  be  an  agency  of  citizenship  which  will 
be  equipped  for  going  into  each  technical  subject  concerning 
which  detail  data  may  be  desired,  and  which  will  enable  the 
citizen  body,  without  partizan  cant  or  the  warp  of  private 
interest,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  acts  of  their  trustees  who 
have  been  appointed  or  elected  to  places  of  official  responsi- 
bility. This  to  my  mind  is  the  answer  to  the  question, 
"What  steps  should  be  taken  to  put  information  into  the 
hands  of  executives  and  into  the  hands  of  the  people?" 


SATURDAY  FORENOON,  OCTOBER 
THE  FOURTEENTH 

CHAIRMAN,  MORRIS  LLEWELLYN  COOKE 

Consulting  Engineer,  Philadelphia 


PHASES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT: 
A  SYMPOSIUM 

CHAIRMAN,  MORRIS  LLEWELLYN  COOKE 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

idea  back  of  this  meeting  is  to  make  it  a  series 
of  practical  illustrations  of  the  application  of  Scien- 
tific Management,  rather  than  a  theoretical  discussion. 
For  this  session  several  speakers  have  been  asked  to  speak 
from  ten  to  fifteen  minutes  on  some  one  problem  each  has 
encountered  in  his  practice;  to  state  the  problem  and  show 
the  way  it  was  worked  out.  In  other  words,  what  we  are  to 
hear  this  morning  is  research  work  that  has  shown  results. 
This  is  an  experience  meeting. 

I  will  call  first  on  Mr.  H.  K.  Hathaway,  the  vice-president 
of  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company,  Philadelphia,  a  con- 
sulting engineer,  and  one  of  Mr.  Taylor's  closest  associates. 

MR.  HATHAWAY:  At  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company 
we  have  succeeded  through  the  application  of  the  Taylor 
principles  of  Scientific  Management  in  increasing  our  produc- 
tion to  about  three  times  what  it  formerly  was,  with  the  total 
cost  approximately  the  same  and  approximately  the  same 
total  of  men;  of  course  with  a  very  much  smaller  proportion 
of  the  men  in  the  shop,  and  a  much  increased  proportion 
of  men  in  the  planning  department,  or  on  the  management 
side.  When  I  first  went  there  we  had  one  superintendent 
who  had  a  foreman  in  the  shop,  and  I  think  there  were  two 
clerks.  At  that  time  there  were  about  125  workmen.  Now, 
in  normally  busy  times,  we  have  something  like  twenty-five 
functional  foremen  and  clerks  in  the  planning  department; 

339 


340  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

what  might  be  called  "non-producers,"  if  that  name  were 
still  in  vogue,  —  Mr.  Earth  forbade  us  all  yesterday  ever  to 
use  it  again.  In  the  shop  we  have  probably  about  seventy 
or  seventy-five  workmen  actually  doing  the  work,  yet  we  are 
turning  out  about  three  times  the  total  product  we  formerly 
did,  measured  in  dollars  and  cents.  That  has  been  made 
possible,  not  by  a  few  large  savings,  but  by  innumerable 
small  savings  in  time. 

About  the  most  remarkable  single  case  that  I  know  of  is 
on  the  assembling  floor.  In  the  assembling  department  of 
the  Tabor  plant,  at  the  time  we  started  to  install  the  system, 
we  had  eleven  men  acting  as  erectors,  putting  up  machinery, 
and  they  assembled  about  nineteen  machines  a  month  on  an 
average.  Now  we  have  six  men,  and  they  assemble  between 
sixty  and  seventy  machines  per  month. 

It  might  be  interesting  to  know  to  what  that  is  due. 
Under  the  old  scheme,  the  assemblers  were  assigned  their 
jobs  by  the  foreman.  An  assembler  would  come  up  to  the 
foreman  and  want  to  know  what  he  should  do,  and  the  fore- 
man, after  looking  around,  would  decide  that  he  might  as 
well  start  assembling  a  machine,  or  a  lot  of  machines.  Ap- 
parently the  materials  were  all  on  hand.  There  were  at  least 
enough  of  the  larger  parts  so  that  it  looked  as  if  he  had  enough 
to  start  on.  The  man  would  start  to  assemble  the  machines. 
He  would  progress  to  a  certain  point  and  find  some  small  part 
missing  without  which  he  could  not  proceed  with  his  work. 
That,  of  course,  would  necessitate  his  hunting  around  to  find 
where  that  part  was.  In  a  good  many  cases  he  would  wait. 
He  would  go  to  the  machine-shop  and  inquire  from  one  man 
to  another  until  he  finally  found  whether  it  had  been  made  or 
not.  If  it  hadn't  been  made,  he  frequently  would  wait  until 
it  was,  keeping  out  of  the  way  of  the  boss  until  he  could  pro- 
ceed with  his  work.  So  about  as  much  time  was  spent,  under 
the  old  scheme,  in  hunting  up  the  materials  and  waiting  for 
materials,  as  there  was  in  actually  doing  the  work.  Another 
source  of  delay  at  that  time  was  that  a  man  would  start  to 
assemble  certain  parts,  put  them  together,  and  find  that 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  341 

they  wouldn't  go  together.  That  would  necessitate  his  chip- 
ping, filing  and  scraping,  until  he  finally  could  make  them  go 
together;  in  other  words,  correcting  errors  of  the  drafting 
department  and  of  the  machine-shop.  Such  conditions  do 
not  exist  under  the  new  scheme.  A  man  is  never  started 
doing  assembling  work  until  we  are  sure  he  has  all  of  the 
materials  on  hand  which  are  required  to  complete  the  assem- 
bling operations  assigned  to  him.  The  parts,  as  they  are  deliv- 
ered from  the  machine-shop,  are  placed  in  certain  racks  or 
bins.  The  parts  from  the  stores  are  delivered  at  the  proper 
time,  and  when  all  of  the  parts  which  enter  into  a  certain 
group  of  the  machine,  or  the  entire  machine  if  it  is  a  simple 
one,  are  ready,  we  issue  an  order  for  one  of  the  assembling 
men  to  perform  certain  specific  operations.  In  that  way,  we 
eliminate  the  time  wasted  in  hunting  around  for  material  for 
the  job.  We  get  away  from  the  chipping  and  fitting  and 
filing,  formerly  necessary  to  make  things  go  together,  through 
an  adequate  scheme  of  inspection.  There  is  no  question  in 
the  mind  of  the  man  doing  the  machine-work  what  the 
requirements  are.  As  soon  as  the  job  is  on  the  machine  the 
inspector  goes  there  and  instructs  the  man  as  to  the  degree 
of  accuracy  required,  the  kind  of  finish  and  any  other 
matters  pertaining  to  the  quality. 

When  the  job  has  been  finished,  the  inspector  goes  there 
again  and  inspects  every  piece  in  the  lot,  with  respect  to  that 
operation,  to  see  that  no  errors  have  been  made.  If  there 
have  been,  they  are  at  once  reported  and  corrected,  before 
the  material  arrives  on  the  assembling  floor.  Formerly, 
they  were  not  corrected,  and  were  not  discovered  until  the 
material  arrived  on  the  assembling  floor.  It  is  the  case  in 
many  shops  today,  even  comparatively  well-run  shops,  that 
errors  are  not  discovered  until  the  material  has  reached  the 
point  where  it  is  to  be  used.  By  eliminating  those  two 
sources  of  trouble,  and  by  doing  certain  things  to  assist  the 
workman,  such  as  having  the  materials  placed  on  his  bench, 
or  on  the  floor  for  him  in  advance,  and  having  his  drawings 
and  his  instructions  delivered  to  him  in  advance,  we  have 


342  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

been  able  to  increase  the  output  of  the  assemblers  from  less 
than  two  machines  per  man  per  month  to  nine  machines  per 
man  per  month.  That  is  probably,  as  I  say,  the  most  re- 
markable thing  in  the  Tabor  Company.  However,  there  are 
various  places  throughout  the  shop,  in  the  machine-shop  for 
instance,  where  a  man  is  producing  from  his  machine  as  high 
as  five  times  the  amount  of  work  that  he  formerly  produced, 
and  without  any  greater  e/ort.  The  selection  of  the  man  for 
the  job  has  also  resulted  in  considerable  savings,  and  has 
contributed  to  the  results  achieved  in  the  instance  I  have 
been  citing. 

Another  thing  I  might  mention.  We  have  a  certain 
machine  which  we  build  in  considerable  quantities.  It  is 
one  of  the  few  jobs  we  have  that  we  call  a  "standard  job," 
something  that  we  are  manufacturing  continuously;  and  of 
the  main  casting,  which  we  call  the  base  casting  of  these 
machines,  in  our  shop  the  boring-mill  man  turns  out  ten  per 
day.  About  a  year  ago  we  fell  behind  our  orders  on  that 
particular  type  of  machine,  and  it  was  necessary  that  we 
do  something  to  get  ahead;  something  more  than  we 
could  possibly  do  in  our  own  shop.  So  we  got  two  or  three 
outside  shops  to  estimate  on  boring  a  lot  of  those  bases  for 
us.  The  prices  quoted  were  prohibitive.  What  was  more 
important  than  that,  the  best  we  could  get  any  outside 
shop  to  agree  to  do  was  to  finish  two  of  those  bases  per 
day.  In  our  shop,  a  man  finishes  ten  per  day.  Well,  two 
per  day  wouldn't  help  us  at  all;  would  not  bring  them  fast 
enough.  So  we  finally  got  hold  of  one  of  the  parties  who 
quoted  on  making  them,  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  and  I 
asked  him  if  he  would  allow  us  to  use  the  boring-mill  he  had 
in  his  shop,  sending  our  own  men  to  operate  it  and  our  own 
tools,  and  he  agreed  to  that.  The  machine  which  he  had 
was  an  old  machine,  rather  light,  and  had  only  one  head  that 
could  be  used.  The  machine  we  were  doing  them  on,  turn- 
ing out  ten  per  day,  was  a  heavier  machine,  having  two  heads 
that  could  be  used  together.  However,  we  sent  our  man 
over  to  their  shop.  He  was  a  man  at  that  time  acting  as  an 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  343 

inspector,  but  who  had  formerly  run  the  boring-mill  in  our 
shop.  He  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  job.  We  sent 
him  over  to  their  shop,  and  he  spent  about  eight  hours,  as 
he  expressed  it,  "digging  the  machine  out  of  the  dirt"; 
cleaning  it  up,  and  getting  it  in  shape  so  that  it  worked 
properly;  seeing  that  the  slides  worked  freely,  and  so  on.  He 
took  his  own  supply  of  bolts,  clamps,  cutting  tools  and  every- 
thing needed  to  get  his  job  set  up  and  started  on  the  ma- 
chine. The  first  thing  he  found  was  that  the  belt  was  loose. 
He  had  suspected  it  was,  but  he  found  as  soon  as  he  put  the 
work  on,  that  it  was  very  much  looser  than  he  thought.  So 
he  took  his  hammer  and  chisel  and  cut  four  inches  out  of  the 
belt  before  starting  to  do  his  job.  To  make  a  long  story 
short,  that  workman  went  into  the  shop  of  my  friend  and 
standardized  conditions  as  far  as  that  particular  machine 
was  concerned.  It  is  exactly  what  we  do  for  an  entire  shop, 
where  we  are  installing  the  Taylor  system.  This  workman 
went  through  and  standardized  the  conditions,  as  far  as  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  do  so,  at  that  particular  machine. 
The  result  was  that  he  succeeded  in  turning  out  eight  of  those 
castings  per  day,  on  an  inferior  machine,  in  another  shop, 
where  the  best  that  the  parties  were  willing  to  do,  or  would 
undertake  to  do,  was  to  turn  out  two  per  day.  The  people 
in  the  shop  where  this  was  done  were  simply  amazed  to  see 
the  work  being  turned  out  so  rapidly. 

There  are  innumerable  instances  of  that  sort  which  might 
be  cited,  but  they  are  so  very  numerous  that  it  is  hard  to 
pick  out  single  cases.  I  think  possibly  those  two  cases  are 
enough. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  There  are  three  different  kinds  of  time- 
study;  fake  time-study,  the  kind  that  ordinary  mortals  make, 
and  the  kind  that  Mr.  Sanford  E.  Thompson  makes.  When- 
ever any  of  us  has  a  really  fine  piece  of  work  in  time-study 
to  do,  he  always  tries  to  get  Mr.  Thompson  to  do  it.  Mr. 
Thompson  is  one  of  those  men  who  can  cover  a  good  deal  of 
ground,  and  he  doesn't  confine  himself  to  making  time- 
studies.  I  think  he  is  going  to  tell  us  this  morning  some- 


344  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

thing  about  the  application  of  the  scientific  method  of  routing 
in  building  construction.    Mr.  Thompson. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  As  our  Chairman  has  said,  one  of  the 
matters  which  I  have  been  interested  in  lately  is  the  organiza- 
tion of  construction  work.  The  construction  man  will  tell 
you  that  Scientific  Management  is  all  right  in  the  shop,  but 
it  does  not  apply  in  the  field.  He  will  say  that  hi  the  shop 
there  is  regular  help  which  stays  from  year  to  year;  there  are 
machines  which  can  be  standardized;  there  are  routes  which 
can  be  fixed  and  kept;  there  are  the  same  operations  over 
and  over  again.  The  contractor  will  say  that  on  two  jobs 
he  has  scarcely  ever  the  same  workmen;  that  the  condi- 
tions of  two  jobs  are  never  alike;  that  the  weather  conditions 
affect  the  work;  and  that  there  are  a  great  many  other  vari- 
ables which  so  change  conditions  that  it  is  absolutely  impossi- 
ble to  systematize.  I  know  that  most  of  the  men  before  me 
are  interested  in  manufacturing,  but  instead  of  taking  up 
the  application  of  time-study  in  manufacturing,  to  which  Mr. 
Cooke  has  referred,  I  want  to  illustrate  how  completely  the 
fundamental  principles  of  Scientific  Management,  so  far  as 
I  have  gone  with  them,  apply  to  work  of  widely  different 
types:  and  not  merely  the  principles,  but  the  methods  and 
tie  apparatus.  One  of  the  most  poorly  organized  classes 
of  work  in  construction  is  the  building  of  reinforced  concrete 
buildings.  I  think  there  is  not  any  kind  of  construction 
work  where  more  money  is  lost  by  inexperienced  contractors. 
It  requires  long  experience  for  a  contractor  to  learn  how  to 
estimate  the  cost  of  a  concrete  building  and  then  keep  within 
his  estimate.  One  of  the  parts  of  the  construction  of  reinforced 
concrete  buildings  which  is  especially  unsystematized  is  the 
building  of  the  forms.  As  you  know,  before  a  concrete 
building  is  started,  —  that  is,  before  the  concrete  is  put 
in  —  wooden  forms  or  molds  the  shape  of  the  columns,  or 
of  the  beams,  or  of  the  slabs,  have  to  be  made,  into  which 
the  concrete  in  an  almost  liquid  condition  can  be  poured,  to 
take  the  shape  of  the  finished  building.  These  wooden 
forms  are  made  up  by  carpenters.  They  are  made  up  in 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  345 

sections;  the  side  of  a  column,  the  side  of  a  beam,  the 
bottom  of  the  beam,  and  so  on.  The  carpenters  work  on 
benches  in  making  up  these  sections.  The  ordinary  method 
of  form  construction,  unsystematized  as  Mr.  Kendall  would 
call  it,  consists  in  ordering  enough  lumber  for  the  job  in 
random  lengths  and  random  widths  and  piling  it  in  the  yard 
wherever  there  happens  to  be  a  good  place  for  it.  Then 
the  foreman  takes  the  general  plan  of  the  buildings,  —  not 
the  form  plan,  he  doesn't  have  any  form  plan  —  he  takes  die 
general  plan  of  the  building,  and  ascertains  the  length  of  the 
beams  between  the  supports,  and  the  height  of  the  columns 
from  floor  to  floor,  and  he  figures  out  the  length  and  the 
width  that  the  forms  should  be.  Then  he  takes  a  carpenter, 
and  he  tells  him,  "Now,  I  want  you  to  make  twenty-five  like 
this,"  and  he  lays  it  out  in  a  way  on  his  bench,  so  that  the 
carpenter  will  make  them  up  right.  The  carpenter  goes  to 
the  pile  of  lumber  that  happens  to  be  the  nearest,  and  selects 
material  from  that  pile.  Sometimes  for  the  same  form  he 
may  have  three  eight-inch  boards,  sometimes  four  sixes,  or 
whatever  happens  to  come  to  his  hand,  and  he  takes  them, 
puts  them  on  the  bench  and  makes  up  his  forms. 

Now  suppose  we  take  the  new  plan,  approximating  to  the 
conditions  one  would  have  under  Scientific  Management  in 
a  shop.  The  forms  are  sketched  out  in  the  drafting  room; 
sketches  are  made  for  every  form,  showing  the  pieces  of  lumber 
that  go  in  that  form.  Then  the  lumber  is  ordered  in  lengths 
and  widths  which  correspond  most  nearly  to  the  sizes.  It  is 
impracticable,  usually,  to  order  the  exact  widths  and  lengths, 
on  account  of  sawmill  conditions.  When  this  lumber  comes 
it  is  piled  in  a  definite  place,  and  according  to  width  and 
length.  With  bulletin  boards,  just  like  the  bulletin  boards 
in  the  shop,  we  have  move-orders  —  little  slips  —  to  move  the 
lumber  from  the  piles  to  the  job  sawmill.  They  are  like 
the  time-cards  which  are  used  in  the  shop.  A  duplicate  of 
this  move-order  goes  to  the  sawmill  man,  and  he  saws  the 
lumber.  Then  another  set  of  orders,  a  move-order  and  a 
make-up  order  as  we  might  call  it,  is  issued,  and  the  lumber 


346  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

is  moved  by  laborers  (carpenters  don't  carry  the  lumber 
now)  to  the  place  where  the  carpenters  are  to  make  up  the 
forms  on  the  bench.  All  the  carpenters  then  have  to  do  is 
to  take  these  sketches  and  make  one  form  after  another, 
according  to  the  directions  given  them.  These  directions 
are  based  on  time-studies,  —  I  cannot  get  away  without  some 
remarks  on  time-study,  although  I  am  not  going  into  it  very 
deeply.  The  time-studies  for  the  task-work  on  the  forms  are 
made  on  just  the  same  general  principles  as  the  time-studies 
for  the  shop,  and  have  the  same  result  in  economy.  Under 
ordinary  conditions  of  form  construction  for  concrete  work, 
a  contractor  has  to  guess  how  many  carpenters  and  how 
much  time  it  will  take  to  make  the  forms  for  a  particular  job. 
The  forms  for  no  two  jobs  are  the  same,  and  the  records  of 
the  construction  of  forms  for  one  contract  do  not  give  exact 
enough  information  to  permit  more  than  a  guess  concerning 
the  construction  of  forms  for  another  contract.  But  although 
no  two  forms  are  alike,  the  elementary  processes  which  go 
to  make  up  the  construction  of  a  form,  —  putting  a  board 
on  a  bench,  laying  a  cleat  on  the  boards  and  driving  a  nail  — 
are  the  same  in  the  construction  of  all  forms;  the  difference 
is  in  their  combination.  Now  Scientific  Management,  in 
this  matter  of  making  forms,  makes  a  time-study  of  the 
operation  of  laying  a  board  on  a  bench;  another  time-study 
of  the  operation  of  laying  a  cleat  on  the  boards;  and  another 
time-study  of  the  driving  of  a  nail.  With  that  information 
a  contractor  can  determine  how  long  a  time  and  how  many 
men  it  will  take  to  make  any  number  of  forms  for  any  job, 
and  he  can  set  tasks.  Suppose  he  has  an  eighteen-foot  form 
to  make,  a  size  he  has  never  made  before.  He  can  tell  exactly 
how  long  it  will  take.  He  knows  how  many  boards  are  to 
be  laid  on  the  bench  and  how  long  it  takes  to  lay  each  there; 
how  many  cleats  to  lay  on  the  boards  and  how  long  to  place 
each  one;  how  many  nails  to  drive  and  how  long  to  drive 
each.  This  presupposes,  of  course,  that  boards,  cleats  and 
nails  are  piled  in  a  given  place  and  are  of  the  proper  size, 
and  of  this  Scientific  Management  takes  care. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  347 

In  the  routing  of  this  material,  I  have  spoken  of  the  irregu- 
lar work  that  is  usually  done  in  connection  with  form  con- 
struction. I  have  found  that  the  cost  in  making  up  forms, 
even  without  task-work,  in  some  cases  has  been  reduced 
about  one-half,  simply  by  planning  the  work  and  systema- 
tizing the  handling  of  the  materials;  doing  of  laborers'  work 
by  laborers  instead  of  by  carpenters.  Of  course,  there  is  a 
further  reduction  in  cost  with  task-work. 

I  spoke  at  the  beginning  of  criticisms  made  and  objections 
raised  to  Scientific  Management  in  the  field.  It  is  almost 
laughable,  the  way  any  man  who  is  contemplating  Scientific 
Management,  or  has  had  it  first  called  to  his  attention,  will 
make  the  same  remark  as  another  man,  that  "it  is  applicable 
in  your  shop,  but  it  cannot  be  done  in  my  shop,  because 
my  conditions  are  entirely  different,  and  too  intricate."  Of 
course,  the  answer  is  that  Scientific  Management  has  been  and 
is  being  introduced  in  a  variety  of  shops,  in  cotton-mills,  in 
dye-works,  in  machine-shops,  in  pulp-mills,  and  so  on.  Take 
the  machine-shop  conditions,  for  example,  and  take  the  out- 
of-door  conditions,  and  notice  that  we  can  use,  as  I  have  said, 
the  same  methods,  the  same  blanks.  We  use  route-sheets, 
just  the  same  as  we  do  in  the  shop,  to  lay  out  the  work.  We 
were  unable  on  one  job  to  get  our  route-sheets  in  time.%  I 
telephoned  over  to  the  Plimpton  Press  and  asked  them  if  they 
would  loan  us  some  route-sheets.  They  did,  and  we  used 
those  route-sheets  of  a  printing  and  binding  plant  successfully 
in  the  work  of  form  building. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  see  no  reason  why  anybody  in  the 
audience  who  wants  to  question  the  speakers  should  not  do 
so.  We  do  not  want  to  spend  an  undue  amount  of  time  on 
that. 

MR.  WEBSTER:  I  should  like  to  ask  Mr.  Thompson  whether 
it  is  true  that  a  carpenter,  scientific  or  otherwise,  will  drive 
nails  at  the  same  rate  on  a  long  job  as  on  a  short  job. 

MR.  THOMPSON:  There  will  be  but  little  difference  provided 
each  is  part  of  a  full  day's  work.  Of  course,  a  single  nail 
will  take  less  time  in  proportion  than  fifty  nails,  because  of 


348  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

lost  time  and  delays  that  will  occur  throughout  the  day. 
For  this  reason  a  percentage  must  be  added  even  to  the  aver- 
age times  of  individual  units  when  combining  them.  It 
is  surprising  how  uniform  the  percentage  will  be.  In  brick- 
laying, for  instance,  take  the  time  the  average  bricklayer 
requires  to  lay  one  brick  and  the  time  of  stretching  the  line 
and  the  time  he  takes  to  strike  off  the  joint,  and  you  will 
find,  when  combining  these  unit  average  times,  that  30  per 
cent  must  be  added  to  allow  for  rest  and  delays.  This  will 
figure  out  the  same  time  after  time  on  average  work. 

MR.  WEBSTER:  You  say  it  takes  practically  the  same  time 
for  a  fourteen-foot  board  as  for  a  twenty-foot  board.  Would 
it  be  the  same  for  a  fifty-foot  board? 

MR.  THOMPSON:  Different  sizes  of  boards  may  require  dif- 
ferent times,  but  with  the  only  one  variable  like  that  it  is  a 
simple  matter  to  study  a  few  sizes  and  then  by  interpolation 
or  by  curves  to  obtain  the  times  on  intermediate  sizes.  For 
example,  take  the  average  time  for  a  ten-foot  board,  a  twenty- 
foot  board  and  a  thirty-foot  board  and  you  can  plot  a  curve 
upon  which  you  can  locate  the  time  of  any  length  you  have 
to  handle. 

MR.  EATON:  This  is  a  matter  of  vital  interest  to  me.  I 
had  this  little  experience.  I  went  to  the  Jersey  City  piers 

of  the boat  and  started  to  measure  with  a  stop-watch 

one  of  the  gangs  in  the  flour  pier.  On  the  spur  of  the  bonus 
some  did  special  work  and  worked  harder  than  others.  I  had 
one  particularly  bright  Irishman  who  worked  one  day  at  a 
maximum  and  didn't  show  up  for  seven  days  after.  I  should 
like  to  ask  how  we  can  find  the  average  skill  which  permits 
the  men  to  do  a  maximum  amount  of  work,  take  their  rest 
and  do  their  work  again.  How  would  you  do  it?  Should 
we  study  for  one  month  or  for  six  months?  I  understand 
from  Mr.  Taylor's  theory  that  you  must  find  the  average  at 
which  a  man  can  normally  and  easily  work. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  think,  from  what  I  gather  by  your 
remarks,  that  the  conditions  were  not  properly  standardized. 
In  other  words,  you  were  doing  business  with  human  nature 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  349 

rather  than  with  physiological  conditions.  I  happen  to 
know  that  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  are  going  to  speak  will 
give  a  suggestion  which,  I  think,  may  satisfy  you.  I  am 
going  to  call  on  a  man  who  has  been  with  Scientific  Manage- 
ment perhaps  as  long  as  anybody,  except  Mr.  Taylor;  and  I 
always  think  of  him  as  representing  the  best  of  Scientific 
Management:  Mr.  Carl  G.  Earth. 

MR.  EARTH:  As  I  understand  it,  each  of  us  is  this  morning 
to  recite  an  example  of  some  of  the  peculiar  circumstances 
and  difficulties  we  sometimes  meet  with  in  our  work  of  im- 
proving the  machinery  or  other  conditions  in  the  industries 
we  undertake  to  systematize.  Perhaps  one  of  the  most 
important  things  I  personally  do  in  the  machine-shops  I 
tackle,  is  the  rebuilding  of  old  machines  so  as  to  make  them 
fit  to  utilize  modern  high-speed  cutting  tools;  and  I  happen 
to  think  of  one  instance  of  this  kind  which  particularly 
gave  me  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction. 

Two  ordinary  milling-machines  had  each  been  very  cleverly 
converted  into  multiple  automatic  gear-cutting  machines  for 
certain  special  gears,  in  such  a  way  that  six  gears  were  placed, 
hi  pairs,  on  each  of  three  dividing  spindles,  and  simultaneously 
cut  by  each  of  three  cutters  mounted  on  a  common  arbor; 
and  at  the  time  this  had  been  done,  these  two  machines  were 
comfortably  able  to  keep  up  with  the  rest  of  the  production 
of  the  shop.  However,  as  the  production  was  materially 
increased  some  time  after  I  was  called  into  this  shop,  these 
machines  frequently  had  to  be  run  overtime  —  they  being 
the  ones  most  behind  in  production.  As  a  consequence,  I 
took  up  the  consideration  of  how  this  production  might  be 
increased  without  the  addition  of  more  machines,  which  was 
just  the  kind  of  a  problem  especially  up  to  me,  as  I  was 
engaged  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  output  of  the 
shop  as  a  whole  without  the  addition  of  new  machinery. 

Taking  the  matter  up  with  the  shop  superintendent,  who 
was  personally  responsible  for  these  gear-cutting  machines 
as  they  were  then  running,  he  at  once  informed  me  that 
nothing  could  be  done  to  further  increase  their  production, 


350  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

as  he  had  already  tried  everything  possible  in  an  effort  to 
do  so.  Yes;  he  had  now  in  the  tool-room  six  high-speed  cut- 
ters, bought  from  the  Brown  &  Sharpe  Mfg.  Co.,  which  he 
had  tried  out,  and  he  had  found  that  he  could  not  get  more 
out  of  them  than  of  the  carbon  cutters,  as  the  machines 
themselves  could  not  "stand"  any  more  than  the  carbon 
cutters  could. 

The  minute  he  expressed  himself  in  this  way  I  knew  that 
he  had  not  known  how  to  go  about  the  matter,  and  insisted 
that  we  at  once  demonstrate  what  those  high-speed  cutters 
would  do  on  the  same  material  when  run  on  a  single  pair 
of  gears  in  a  large  milling-machine  of  ample  stiffness,  and  pro- 
vided with  a  number  of  speed  and  feed  changes.  In  doing 
this,  we  ran  one  of  these  cutters  for  several  hours  at  a  rate 
fifteen  times  higher  than  the  rate  at  which  the  carbon  cutters 
were  running  in  the  gear-cutting  machines  referred  to.  This 
was  an  eye-opener  to  everybody  concerned,  and  it  was  fully 
agreed  that  I  was  right  in  saying  that,  unless  it  were  possi- 
ble in  some  way  or  other  to  utilize  these  high-speed  cutters 
on  the  present  gear-cutting  machines,  they  ought  to  be 
discarded  and  new,  up-to-date  machines  secured. 

However,  I  did  not  hesitate  to  guarantee  to  quadruple 
the  output  of  the  old  machines,  which  would  put  them  far 
ahead  of  any  possible  demand  upon  them.  This  at  once  got 
the  superintendent  at  my  ears;  for  in  the  first  place  he  did 
not  believe  I  could  do  it,  and  secondly,  he  did  not  wish  to 
see  me  succeed  where  he  had  failed. 

In  the  meanwhile  I  had  fully  realized  the  reason  for  his 
failure  as  soon  as  I  had  been  shown  the  high-speed  cutters, 
which  were  of  the  standard  size  for  that  pitch,  with  only  a 
seven-eighths-inch  bore.  The  reason  why  no  more  could  be 
done  with  these  than  with  the  carbon  cutters  on  the  gear-cut- 
ting machines  mentioned,  was  that  the  limit  was  the  lack  of 
stiffness  on  the  part  of  the  long  arbor  of  only  seven-eighths- 
inch  diameter,  and  not  on  the  machine  itself;  though  this  was 
not  as  stiff  as  desirable,  and  was  therefore  also  readily  set  into 
vibration  by  the  vibrations  and  chatter  of  the  flimsy  arbor. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  351 

I  therefore  secured  new  high-speed  cutters  with  a  one-and 
three-fourths-inch  bore,  and  with  the  key-seat  cut  in  exactly 
the  same  relation  to  the  teeth  on  all  of  them;  and  also  had  a 
suitable  arbor  made  with  the  three  keys  for  driving  the 
cutters,  so  staggered  on  the  circumference  that  the  teeth  of 
the  three  cutters  would  not  strike  the  face  of  the  gears  at 
the  same  time  in  starting  in,  but  would  do  so  in  succession. 

I  also  quadrupled  the  only  feed  on  one  of  the  machines, 
but  left  the  two  speeds  —  of  which  one  was  double  the  other  — 
as  they  were,  with  the  idea  that  some  experimentation  might 
be  necessary  before  we  could  get  the  best  out  of  these. 

However,  as  we  found  it  possible  to  run  on  the  higher  of 
these  speeds,  whereas  before  they  had  been  running  on  the 
lower,  and  we  thus,  all  told,  attained  an  eight  times  greater 
rate  of  cutting  than  before,  with  the  ability  to  cut  this  in 
two  if  we  ever  would  encounter  extra  hard  castings,  I  was 
satisfied  to  leave  the  speeds  as  they  were. 

The  eight  times  higher  rate  of  cutting,  —  coupled  with  the 
time  required  to  take  the  six  finished  gears  off  the  machine 
and  put  on  six  new  blanks  —  resulted  in  a  new  production 
of  six  gears  every  thirty  minutes,  as  against  the  old  produc- 
tion of  six  gears  every  two  hours  and  thirty  minutes,  or  five 
to  one,  as  against  the  four  to  one  I  had  guaranteed  to  get. 

I  look  upon  this  as  a  good  example  of  what  may  be  done 
by  a  full  analysis  of  a  difficulty  encountered,  and  also  of  the 
jealousy  we  sometimes  meet  with  when  fearlessly  and  stead- 
fastly pursuing  our  work  and  carrying  out  our  convictions; 
as  exposed  by  what  occurred  after  both  machines  had  for 
several  months  been  turning  out  gears  at  the  new  rate 
whenever  they  were  required  to  run,  though  they  were  now 
necessarily  often  shut  down  for  lack  of  work. 

The  first  batch  of  extra  hard  gear-blanks  encountered  were 
not  properly  looked  after,  and  as  a  consequence  a  set  of  cut- 
ters was  badly  burnt  before  the  fact  was  realized  by  the  rather 
ignorant  attendant,  and  for  the  rest  of  this  batch  the  machines 
were  put  down  on  the  lower  speed,  —  a  matter  we,  as  before 
stated,  had  anticipated  might  at  times  be  necessary. 


352          TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

This  incident  was  so  perverted,  however,  in  spreading  to 
other  departments  of  the  large  factory,  that  some  jealous 
individual  who  had  evidently  all  along  been  watching  for  an 
opportunity  to  belittle  our  work,  wrote  to  the  general  super- 
intendent informing  him  that  our  claim  that  we  were  doing 
so  much  better  with  our  gear-cutting  than  formerly  was  all 
idle  boast,  for  he  had  ascertained  that  we  were  doing  only 
30  per  cent  more  than  formerly,  and  in  so  doing  used  far 
more  expensive  cutters,  and  even  then  had  to  grind  these 
more  frequently  than  the  old  cutters. 

This  led  to  an  investigation  and  a  report  by  me  in  which 
all  the  facts  were  ascertained  and  set  forth,  along  with  the 
statement  that  if  we  ran  the  machines  at  all  as  now  refeeded, 
we  could  not  do  the  machine-work  at  a  lesser  rate  than  four 
times  the  former  rate,  and  that  thus  the  30  per  cent 
production  had  absolutely  no  foundation;  while  the  alleged 
frequent  regrinding  of  the  new  and  more  expensive  cutters 
was  simply  the  exaggeration  of  a  single  incident  exceptional 
to  a  general  condition. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  want  to  say  that  when  we  began  this 
morning  we  decided  we  would  make  this  simply  an  experi- 
ence meeting  in  which  each  speaker  in  ten  minutes  would 
state  a  problem  and  the  way  he  had  solved  it.  I  want  to 
know  whether  Congressman  Redfield  won't  give  us  an  experi- 
ence of  that  kind. 

HONORABLE  MR.  REDFIELD:  I  do  not  come  here  because  I 
am  a  Congressman  but  in  spite  of  it.  I  am  a  manufacturer 
and  have  been  for  twenty-six  years.  I  am  glad  to  tell  you 
certain  actual  experiences  in  the  shop  along  the  line  of  some 
of  the  ideas  suggested  here,  which  we  had  adopted  at  our 
shop  without  knowing  they  were  scientific.  That  was  because 
we  didn't  know  enough.  The  greatest  curse  the  American 
manufacturer  has  is  knowing  his  own  business.  It  is  a 
disease  of  the  brain.  I  speak  from  having  sold  goods  made 
in  America  in  every  civilized  country  in  the  world,  personally, 
and  in  most  uncivilized  ones;  and  I  tell  you  right  here, 
gentlemen,  there  isn't  any  reason  in  the  world  why  you  can't 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  353 

sell  goods  in  Birmingham,  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna,  Tokio  or 
anywhere  else  just  as  well  as  you  can  in  New  York  and  New 
England.  I  have  done  it.  I  have  been  in  a  Japanese  textile 
mill  and  had  the  proprietor  tell  me  he  used  four  times  as  much 
help  per  yard  of  cloth  as  is  used  in  New  England.  Yet  the 
New  England  mill  was  way  ahead  in  quality  of  production, 
but  its  manager  knew  his  own  business  and  that  was  the 
trouble.  Years  ago  a  very  successful  partner,  an  older  man 
than  I  and  wiser,  laid  down  this  rule  to  me  as  his  junior  — 
I  commend  it  to  you  —  "Every  manufacturer  should  always 
and  continuously  be  his  own  severest  critic.  He  should 
always  be  finding  fault  with  himself.  He  should  never  be 
satisfied,  and  he  should  never  let  his  business  get  into  such 
a  condition  that  any  customer  can  find  fault  with  him.  That 
shows  he  doesn't  know  his  job.  At  the  end  of  twenty  years 
of  practice  I  begin  to  realize  that  I  know  very  little  about 
this  business."  Long  years  ago  he  said  to  me,  "Redfield, 
you  are  not  in  the  factory  end  of  this  thing,  you  are  in  the 
outside  end.  For  that  reason  please  take  an  hour  every  day 
and  go  out  into  the  shop  and  find  all  the  fault  you  can."  I 
did,  and  for  ten  years,  gentlemen,  I  never  went  into  my 
shop  without  finding  something  wrong.  I  lay  to  that  simple 
fact  the  other  fact  that  from  the  smallest  of  eight  concerns 
it  grew  to  be  the  biggest  of  forty.  To  the  man  who  says  to 
me,  "I  know  my  own  business,"  I  say  in  my  own  mind, 
"God  help  you." 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  saw  the  output  of  the  shop  doubled 
in  three  years  without  adding  a  man  or  a  machine.  I  have 
seen  the  product  go  from  2,800  per  day  to  11,000  per  day. 
How  was  it  done?  In  one  single  way  above  all,  —  by  the 
constant  spirit  of  dissatisfaction  with  oneself,  by  the  constant 
determination  not  to  be  satisfied,  and  above  all  things  by 
never  thinking,  "Now  I  am  right."  I  have  seen  in  ten  years 
the  entire  reconstruction  of  the  machinery  in  the  plant  three 
times;  three  times  the  practical  scrapping  of  the  whole  plant 
as  it  grew,  not  in  a  chunk  but  in  items.  I  am  going  into  a 
little  detail  with  a  drop-hammer.  It  began  with  a  base  which 


354  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

weighed  six  times  the  weight  of  the  arm;  both  were  cast  iron, 
the  uprights  were  in  anthracite  cast  iron,  the  bearings  were 
babbitted,  the  shafts  were  a  soft  steel  forging  and  the  rollers 
were  riveted.  The  arms  were  iron.  At  the  end  of  ten  years 
that  has  twice  been  completely  redesigned.  The  base  now 
weighs  fifteen  times  the  weight  of  the  arm,  the  arm  has  be- 
come a  steel  forging  made  in  heavy  steel  and  the  uprights 
have  come  to  be  made  of  charcoal  iron  like  a  car  wheel; 
the  shaft  is  an  inch  and  a  half  in  diameter  and  made  of  forged 
crucible  steel;  the  bearings  have  become  bronze,  and  the 
rollers  are  steel  castings  with  polished  surfaces.  The  guide- 
rods  which  operate  the  rollers  above  are  made  of  hammered 
iron  casting,  —  seven  cents  a  pound  in  the  rough  —  and 
tipped  at  the  bottom  with  steel  casting,  —  fifteen  cents  a 
pound  —  which  an  expert  blacksmith  had  learned  to  weld 
on  to  that  iron.  In  other  words,  that  machine  has  been 
refined  until  the  product  is  three  or  four  times  what  it  was 
before,  and  what  is  more  important,  the  element  of  repairs 
has  practically  ceased  to  be. 

Now,  another  thing  we  said  to  our  men,  "Your  piece-rate 
shall  never  be  cut,  no  matter  what  you  earn."  When  that 
thing  happened  (my  partner  did  it),  he  called  the  superin- 
tendent upstairs  and  told  him  what  he  was  going  to  do. 
The  superintendent  said,  "Some  of  these  men  will  earn  too 
much;  they  will  earn  $7  or  $8  a  day."  "Well,"  said  my 
partner,  "is  your  salary  too  large?"  He  said,  "That  is 
different,"  and  my  partner  asked,  "Why?"  And  the  super- 
intendent withered  up  and  was  silent.  We  agreed  that 
obvious  mistakes  should  be  corrected,  but  only  by  mutual 
consent.  We  abandoned  absolutely  the  principle  that  we 
had  a  moral  right  to  cut  a  rate  which  we  had  made.  I  tell 
you,  gentlemen,  if  I  say  nothing  else  here  at  all,  that  to  cut 
the  piece-work  rate  because  a  man  is  earning  a  large  salary 
is  a  moral  wrong  and  an  economic  mistake.  From  practical 
experience  I  tell  you  the  labor  men  are  absolutely  right  in 
regarding  such  a  thing  as  a  curse  to  them  and  as  a  crime 
against  the  interests  of  the  manufacturer,  and  yet  I  have  a 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  355 

friend  who  boasted  to  me  that  he  cut  his  piece-work  rate  five 
times  on  one  single  job.  I  think  he  should  be  locked  up. 

Our  men  knew  that  their  piece-work  rate  would  never  be 
cut,  never  so  long  as  we  lived,  at  least,  and  that  whenever  a 
machine  stopped,  it  cost  them  money  as  well  as  us.  The 
consequence  was  that  the  machines  didn't  stop.  The  men 
would  come  in  fifteen  minutes  before  the  time,  to  look  over 
their  machines;  look  over  them,  under  them,  everywhere, 
and  if  there  was  the  slightest  thing  wrong  they  would  run 
for  the  repair  man  to  get  that  machine  going.  I  won't  tell 
you  what  happened  to  the  repair  man,  because  I  don't  like 
to  tell  the  number  of  thousands  of  dollars  that  went  out  from 
day  to  day.  It  was  far  more  than  the  wages,  and  it  had  no 
relation  to  the  doubling  of  the  output.  Furthermore,  when 
the  men  knew  we  were  dealing  with  them  in  that  way,  they 
began  to  be  willing  to  remake  all  the  spoiled  goods  in  their 
own  time,  and  finally  they  paid  for  the  material  they  used 
in  making  spoiled  goods,  voluntarily,  and  saved  more  than 
$10,000  per  annum. 

A  Swedish  manufacturer  once  asked  me  when  I  was  selling 
goods  against  him  at  a  place  only  fourteen  miles  away  from 
his  plant  in  Copenhagen,  "How  can  you  pay  so  much?  We 
pay  $2.25,  or  nine  English  shillings,  and  we  work  fourteen 
hours.  What  do  your  men  earn?"  I  replied,  "An  average 
of  $5  and  they  work  nine  hours."  He  asked,  "How  can  you 
do  it?  "  I  said,  "That  is  the  reason."  I  am  perfectly  serious 
about  it;  that  is  the  reason.  I  went  on  to  tell  him  that 
when  his  men  got  so  efficient  and  his  plant  so  perfect  that 
his  men  could  earn  $5  in  nine  hours,  then  I  would  begin 
to  be  afraid  of  him,  but  not  until  then.  I  know  these 
things  are  not  accepted;  some  of  you  gentlemen  are  saying 
in  the  corners  of  your  minds,  "Not  in  my  business."  I 
know  that  habit  perfectly  well.  I  have  had  2,000  manufac- 
turers for  customers  through  these  years  in  every  country  in 
the  world.  But  it  is  the  Lord's  truth,  and  the  sooner  you 
get  to  know  it,  the  better  for  you  and  yours.  There  are 
three  interests  in  your  factories,  —  yours,  your  workmens', 


356  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

your  customers'.  You  cannot  run  your  shop  in  your  own 
way  and  ignore  the  workmen  and  the  buyers.  The  workers 
cannot  work  and  ignore  you  and  the  buyers.  Nor  can  the 
buyers  ignore  you  and  the  workmen  and  say,  "You  shall  do 
thus  and  so  for  me."  The  three  have  to  get  along  together. 
Isn't  it  about  time  we  got  big  enough  to  discard  the  preju- 
dices of  the  past  and  try  to  pull  together,  not  separately? 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  have  all  been  watching  the  quiet 
work  of  one  individual  who  has  been  working  along  lines 
apparently  absolutely  different  from  those  being  followed 
by  any  other  worker  in  the  Scientific  Management  field.  I 
wonder  if  Mrs.  Gilbreth  would  say  a  word  to  us. 

MRS.  GILBRETH:  I  did  not  expect  to  speak  in  this  place, 
but  I  feel  as  though  I  must.  There  is  something  I  wanted  very 
much  to  say  at  the  meeting  on  academic  efficiency  yesterday, 
but  there  wasn't  the  time.  I  feel  that  the  gap  between  the 
problems  of  academic  efficiency  and  industrial  efficiency, 
which  is  after  all  only  an  apparent  gap,  can  be  easily  closed 
if  only  we  will  consider  the  importance  of  the  psychology  of 
management.  I  spent  several  years  examining  and  studying 
it,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  Scientific  Management  as  laid 
down  by  Mr.  Taylor  conforms  absolutely  with  psychology. 
Principles  of  vocational  guidance  may  be  studied  along  psy- 
chological lines  to  train  the  individual  so  he  will  know  exactly 
what  he  does  want  to  do.  It  is  the  place  of  the  colleges  to 
train  the  man  so  that  when  he  comes  into  his  work  there  will 
be  no  jar.  Since  the  underlying  aim  is  the  same,  and  since 
psychology  is  the  method  by  which  we  are  all  getting  there, 
isn't  it  merely  a  question  of  difference  of  vocabulary  between 
academic  work  and  scientific  work?  Why  not  bridge  this 
gap  and  all  go  ahead  together? 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  I  always  sympathize  with  a  man  who  has 
to  buck  up  against  really  hard  problems,  and  I  think  Mr. 
Gilbreth  has  those  all  the  time  on  his  construction  work. 
Mr.  Gilbreth  is  vice-president  of  the  Society  for  Promoting 
Engineering  Education,  and  for  these  two  reasons  I  think 
we  should  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  him. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  357 

MR.  GILBRETH:  I  propose  to  tell  you  two  simple  stories 
of  things  in  line  with  what  the  others  have  told  you  this 
morning,  except  that  perhaps  they  have  this  difference;  that 
in  our  work  things  happen  suddenly,  something  like  a  fire, 
and  we  have  to  be  ready  to  work  instantly.  When  I  first 
read  Mr.  Taylor's  papers  I  said,  "Mr.  Taylor,  that  is  the 
finest  thing  I  have  read  in  my  life,  and  I  am  sorry  I  can't 
adapt  all  of  it  to  my  business.  Of  course  there  are  some 
very  nice  things  that  perhaps  I  can  adapt,  but  it  is  unfortunate 
that  your  work  is  so  different  from  mine  that  I  simply  can't 
apply  much  of  it.  I  realize  that  that  is  the  finest  way  in  the 
world  to  run  a  machine-shop,  but  my  work  is  different." 
Mr.  Taylor  was  very  patient  and  said,  "If  you  will  keep  on 
trying  you  will  find  that  it  is  right."  I  can  save  you  gentle- 
men a  lot  of  time  if  you  will  think  that  over. 

Take  Paper  No.  1003,  by  Mr.  Taylor,  one  of  the  papers 
of  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  called  "Shop  Management."1  After  you  have 
read  that  through  four  times  at  least,  then  get  some  of  the 
other  publications,  notably  papers  No.  647  2  and  No.  928,' 
the  former  being  the  first  paper  that  Mr.  Taylor  wrote.  The 
criticism  has  been  made  that  "he  shot  over  the  head  of  the 
average  man."  But  if  you  will  read  the  other  one,  Paper 
1003,  you  will  find  it  is  a  little  nearer  the  level  of  the  average 
man.  Then  read  his  presidential  address,  recognized  every- 
where as  the  greatest  paper  ever  written  on  the  subject, 
entitled  "The  Art  of  Cutting  Metals."4  Although  that 
paper  is  so  good,  people  unfortunately  do  not  know  what  it 
is  about.  They  are  misled  by  the  title  and  don't  understand 
that  it  is  really  about  management.  It  made  such  an  inter- 
national row  on  the  subject  of  cutting  metals,  —  I  heard  of 
it  again  last  summer  in  England  —  that  they  refused  to  dis- 
cuss what  he  had  to  say  on  the  subject  of  management  in  it. 

1  Vol.  xxii,  p.  1337. 

» "Piece  Rate  System,"  by  Frederick  W.  Taylor,  Vol.  xvi,  p.  856. 

*  "  Bonus  System  for  Rewarding  Labor,"  by  Henry  L.  Gantt,  Vol.  xxiii,  p.  34. 

4  No.  1119,  Vol.  xxviii,  p.  31. 


358  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

It  is  not  about  metals  at  all,  it  is  about  management.  After 
you  have  read  Paper  No.  1003,  then  No.  647,  then  "The 
Art  of  Cutting  Metals,"  then  No.  928,  then  Paper,  —  I 
don't  remember  the  number,  by  Carl  G.  Earth,  on  "  Slide 
Rules  as  a  Part  of  the  Taylor  System  of  Management," 1  you 
will  find  that  nearly  all  of  the  questions  you  ask  are  answered 
in  every  one  of  these  papers. 

Yesterday  I  had  the  pleasure  of  listening  to  the  professors 
discussing  academic  efficiency  and  they  asked  a  great  many 
questions.  I  felt  sorry  for  them  because  I  have  asked  these 
questions  so  many  times  myself;  but  there  is  no  excuse  for 
my  continuing  to  ask  questions,  —  they  are  all  answered  in 
"Shop  Management,"  No.  1003. 

Now  one  thing  about  the  discussion  of  academic  efficiency. 
I  am  building  a  fairly  large  job  at  the  present  time  on  which 
I  have  a  number  of  high  school  graduates,  and  a  number  of 
young  college  men,  most  of  them  from  a  few  months  to  a 
very  few  years  out  of  college.  They  come  from  the  best 
colleges  in  this  country,  and  they  have  formed  themselves, 
without  any  suggestion  from  anybody,  into  the  first  Canadian 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Scientific  Management.  They 
used  as  one  of  their  books  Bulletin  No.  5  of  the  Carnegie 
Foundation,  written  by  our  chairman  of  today,  and  from 
their  standpoint  the  management  as  described  in  that  bulletin 
is  flawless.  They  have  told  me  so  as  I  have  talked  with  each 
one  of  them.  Now  the  question  of  academic  efficiency  I  am 
not  prepared  to  debate,  but  I  will  say  this  however;  these 
young  men  came  from  different  colleges,  the  University  of 
Illinois,  Yale,  Brown,  Lehigh,  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  and  I  don't  remember  what  other  colleges,  and 
every  one  of  them  said,  "I  regret  exceedingly  that  our  pro- 
fessors have  not  taken  this  thing  seriously,  and  given  it  to 
us  while  we  were  in  school."  I  pass  this  on  to  you. 

Now  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  very  simple  case  that  hap- 
pened all  of  a  sudden.  Unexpecteolly  we  found  ourselves 
possessed  of  a  contract  to  unload  a  barge  and  deliver  the 

*No.  ioio,  Vol.  xxv,  p.  49. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  359 

material  near  a  job.  The  road  from  the  wharf  ran  up  and 
around  the  shoulder  of  a  hill  to  the  site  of  the  job.  The  way 
they  had  to  unload  that  barge  was  to  back  up  the  teams  to 
the  boat,  and  then  drive  up-hill  and  around  to  the  job.  The 
material  had  to  be  unloaded  somewhere  in  that  circle  until 
they  were  ready  to  use  it.  Before  we  got  there,  this  being 
an  emergency  piece  of  work,  they  put  the  best  foreman,  as 
good  a  foreman  as  you  could  wish  to  see,  in  charge  of  this 
work  on  the  old-time  plan.  Mr.  Kendall  called  it  yesterday 
the  "  unsystematized  plan."  We  call  it  the  "  traditional  plan," 
and  if  there  is  a  little  improvement  in  the  traditional  plan 
we  call  it  the  "transitory  plan,"  and  if  it  is  down  to  what  Mr. 
Taylor  means  when  he  calls  it  the  "ultimate  plan,"  we  call 
it  the  ultimate  plan. 

Now  you  can  readily  understand  that  a  fire  department 
can  have  the  ultimate  plan  of  management  even  though  it 
doesn't  know  where  the  fire  is  going  to  be.  That  is  almost 
the  only  variable  which  they  don't  know  about.  We  don't 
know  where  our  next  job  is  going  to  be,  but  we  have  to  be 
ready. 

This  man  had  ten  carts  and  horses  and  naturally  he  had 
ten  drivers.  There  are  many  savings  that  could  have  been 
made,  but  were  not  for  reasons  which  I  shall  not  go  into.  We 
could  easily  have  had  a  string  of  carts  go  along  with  one 
driver,  but  that  wasn't  done  in  this  case.  The  first  thing  we 
did  was  to  analyze  that  situation,  exactly  as  Mr.  Taylor  has 
suggested,  as  it  would  be  analyzed  in  a  machine-shop.  The 
laws  underlying  all  similar  situations  we  have  found  by 
practical  experience  are  identical,  and  the  only  place  where 
we  fall  down  on  those  laws  is  where  we  haven't  had  sufficient 
experience  or  sufficient  intelligence  to  make  a  success  of  it. 
There  is  not  one  exception  to  the  rule;  the  application  may 
be  different,  but  the  law  holds  good.  Every  one  of  those  laws 
that  you  find  in  "Shop  Management"  we  have  found  abso- 
lutely ridiculous  at  first,  and  absolutely  perfect  before  we 
have  done  with  them. 

We  analyzed  this  proposition  and  took  time-studies.    We 


360  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

made  out  a  time-table  by  which  those  men  should  go  to  work, 
and  at  the  end  of  one  day  decided  that  five  horses  and  five 
drivers  should  unload  a  good  deal  more  than  the  men  on  the 
barge  could  give  them.  We  found  that  the  limiting  feature 
was  the  number  of  carts  that  could  back  up  to  that  barge  and 
be  loaded.  To  make  a  long  story  short,  we  found  that  a 
man  ought  to  take  twenty- three  loads  per  day;  he  had 
been  taking  six.  After  giving  this  one  day's  study,  we  said, 
"Here,  the  price  in  this  vicinity  is  $1.50  per  day  for  a 
man,  another  dollar  for  the  horse.  The  horse  doesn't  get 
the  dollar,  the  man  gets  the  dollar;  therefore  we  can't  put 
a  bonus  on  the  horse;  and,  incidentally,  we  must  see  that 
that  man  doesn't  make  the  horse  overwork  and  the  man 
get  the  bonus,  because  that  would  not  be  in  accordance 
with  the  square  deal."  We  said,  "According  to  the  laws  of 
averages  derived  from  other  experiences  of  Mr.  Taylor,  that 
man  ought  to  have  $1.50  a  day  if  he  does  it  his  way,  and 
he  ought  to  have  eighty  cents  more  if  he  does  it  our  way, 
and  that  makes  $2.30." 

Just  imagine,  gentlemen,  what  all  of  you  would  do  to  have 
a  corresponding  increase  in  pay  for  your  daily  work,  a  60 
per  cent  increase  in  your  income.  However,  in  this  case 
that  eighty  cents  is  the  difference  between  being  rich  and 
barely  getting  across.  The  first  man  made  his  bonus  the 
first  day  and  resigned.  We  picked  out  another  man  and  he 
got  his  bonus  and  he  resigned.  In  the  meantime  these  young 
college  men,  wanting  to  be  more  efficient,  disregarded  some 
of  the  rules;  they  went  to  work  a  little  too  fast  and  had  a 
whole  lot  of  tasks  set  everywhere.  They  worked  days,  nights 
and  evenings  for  the  promotion  that  would  come  to  them,  and 
they  finally  had  so  many  tasks  demanding  their  attention 
that  when  man  after  man  fell  down,  —  I  mean  by  that,  each 
got  his  bonus  and  resigned  —  they  could  not  take  time  to 
investigate.  They  were  busy  somewhere  else.  And  so  we 
went  back  to  the  old  way  —  ten  men  —  and  we  got  eight 
loads  a  day.  As  soon  as  the  reports  came  in  to  the  New  York 
office,  the  "flying  squadron"  came  out  to  the  job  to  see  what 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  361 

was  the  matter,  and  the  leader  said,  "You  must  not  let  the 
first  task  that  you  set  get  away  with  you;  you  must  stay  with 
it  until  it  is  right."  That  is  a  very  important  thing. 

So  we  did,  and  the  first  man  again  resigned.  "Well,"  then 
they  said,  "we  will  knock  off  all  business  everywhere  else 
and  we  will  have  one  man  walk  along  with  each  driver  all 
day  and  every  man  will  then  earn  his  bonus  and  it  will  be  all 
right."  But  we  found  that  there  was  a  little  something  more 
to  do  than  that.  We  found,  —  and  Dr.  Taylor  expressed 
that  in  his  talk  the  first  evening  here  —  that  we  should  have 
to  teach  the  workman  that  creating  a  big  output  is  not  a  crime 
against  his  fellow-man.  Recognizing  that  point,  we  took  off 
five  carts  to  begin  with  and  put  them  on  some  other  job. 
That  left  only  five  carts.  It  would  require  five  carts  then  to 
take  care  of  the  material  that  the  extra  number  of  men  un- 
loaded from  the  barge,  and  it  was  a  case  of  taking  that  material 
or  else  preventing  the  men  from  having  the  job  on  the  barge. 
That  reversed  the  condition  temporarily.  We  said  to  the 
men  on  the  barge,  "For  every  man  that  gets  a  bonus  you  get 
a  bonus;  if  they  all  get  a  bonus  you  get  a  double  bonus." 
And  then  we  went  to  the  foreman  who  was  rather  sore  about 
this  time,  and  we  said,  "Now  for  every  man  that  gets  a  bonus 
you  get  ten  cents  a  day.  There  are  five  of  them;  if  all  five 
get  their  bonus  you  get  $i.  And  mind  you,  if  all  five  don't 
get  their  bonus,  you  get  the  'sack.'"  And  since  that  time 
every  man  on  the  job  has  earned  $2.30  a  day  instead  of  $1.50, 
and  worked  nine  hours  and  thirty-five  minutes  instead  of  ten 
hours,  and  the  whips  have  been  taken  away,  that  being  the 
only  reward  we  could  think  of  to  give  the  horses. 

I  will  describe  one  more  case;  one  concerning  the  applica- 
tion of  the  instruction  card.  We  had  a  job  to  make  twelve 
benches,  and  we  had  our  lumber  come  in  endways  so  the  con- 
ditions would  be  the  same  in  each  case.  We  had  an  athletic 
contest,  starting  all  the  men  at  the  same  time,  but  these  men 
could  not  speak  English  and  they  could  not  read  French,  so 
we  had  difficulty  in  making  out  an  instruction  card,  that 
being  one  of  the  first  things  that  I  fought  Mr.  Taylor  about. 


362  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

"There  is  no  use,"  I  said,  "in  making  out  instruction  cards 
for  these  men,  because  they  cannot  read  anyway. "  But  if 
you  read  "Scientific  Management"  carefully,  you  will  find 
that  Mr.  Taylor  says  an  instruction  card  may  be  anything 
that  will  give  the  man  the  information.  So  we  had  a  working 
exhibit  made,  and  stereoscopic  photographs  of  each  step  taken. 
Then  we  gave  each  of  the  men  stereoscopic  photographs, 
so  that  he  could  visualize  the  processes  to  be  done.  And  we 
increased  the  output  of  every  man  an  average  of  from  two 
units  to  eight  units  per  hour. 

MR.  ROBINSON:  Mrs.  Gilbreth  has  brought  up  this  matter 
of  academic  efficiency,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  in  the  dis- 
cussion yesterday  we  did  not  really -get  at  it.  I  believe  there 
is  as  much  gain  to  be  made  in  academic  work  as  there  has  been 
in  this  other  work,  and  that  is  about  fifteen  to  one,  as  Mr. 
Earth  says. 

Can  we  apply  the  principles  of  Scientific  Management  to 
academic  work?  First,  we  must  get  a  standard  that  the  man 
can  reach,  then  determine  how  near  he  comes  to  doing  it 
and  finally  devise  some  way  of  getting  him  to  do  it.  It  has 
not  been  done  yet,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  principles  of  Scientific  Management  can  be  applied. 

Now  I  want  to  read  this  which  illustrates  the  present  state 
of  academic  efficiency,  not  in  all  cases,  mind  you,  but  in  a 
goodly  number.  In  the  students'  room  I  have  occupied  in 
this  college  I  read  this,  —  and  I  mention  it  not  as  a  reflec- 
tion on  this  college,  because  it  represents  the  college  where  I 
am  teaching,  and  I  think  it  represents  generally  the  academic 
spirit.  This  is  a  motto  on  the  wall  in  large  letters:  "There  is 
just  one  good  thing  which  may  be  said  of  studying;  it  lends 
by  contrast  a  greater  zest  to  those  activities  for  which  one 
really  comes  to  college." 

I  asked  my  class  in  descriptive  geometry  the  other  day, 
when  they  came  in  with  their  lessons  half  prepared:  "If  you 
took  this  attitude  on  the  football  team  and  could  not  do 
anything,  what  would  happen?"  They  laughed  and  said, 
"They  would  fire  us  out." 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  363 

Now  what  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  In  the  first  place 
we  must  do  what  Scientific  Management  does. 

First,  we  must  select  our  material  a  little  more  carefully, 
and  then  when  we  have  got  it  we  must  keep  our  eye  on  it. 
And  it  seems  to  me  the  thing  to  go  by  is  this  one  thing,  the 
attitude  of  the  student;  has  he  the  enthusiasm  for  his  study 
that  the  ordinary  man  has  for  football?  If  he  has  not  that 
enthusiasm  he  has  got  to  get  it,  and  if  he  cannot  get  it  he  had 
better  go  into  some  business  in  which  he  can  get  it. 

I  have  one  illustration.  I  was  teaching  in  a  technical 
school  which  had  started  anew.  In  the  second  year  that 
school  had  one  boy  who  seemed  almost  a  hopeless  case. 
He  was  likable,  he  had  a  good  physique,  he  was  a  first-class 
young  animal.  But  he  had  no  moral  nature  to  speak  of. 
It  seemed  impossible  to  do  anything  with  him.  He  would 
cheat  in  his  examinations  before  your  eyes  and  not  know  that 
he  was  doing  anything  out  of  the  way.  That  school  had  had 
no  athletics.  They  began  football  and  baseball  that  year. 
This  boy  took  a  great  interest  in  both.  During  his  first  year 
his  studies  were  a  failing  business.  By  working  on  that  boy, 
—  it  was  a  small  school  and  we  could  get  very  close  to  the 
students  —  by  working  on  that  boy  we  got  him  tremendously 
enthusiastic  over  his  football  and  his  baseball.  Since  he  was 
a  simple-minded  youth  and  did  not  have  the  traditions  of 
older  classes  to  form  his  mind,  we  were  able  to  work  that 
enthusiasm  into  his  studies. 

Now  where  is  that  poor  kind  of  a  boy.  He  graduated  with 
A's  in  his  studies,  captain  of  the  football  team,  captain  of 
the  baseball  team,  and  we  could  leave  him  in  an  examination 
and  let  him  have  access  to  anything  and  he  would  not  use  it. 
He  was  a  sport.  He  put  the  sporting  instinct  into  his  work. 
When  he  came  out  did  he  have  to  take  two  or  three  years  to 
get  adjusted  to  his  work?  No.  He  went  right  into  his  work 
with  the  same  enthusiasm  he  had  gone  into  his  baseball  and 
football,  and  simply  went  right  up  the  ladder.  The  other 
day  he  was  elected  to  a  public  position  of  honor  and  of 
responsibility. 


364  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

That  is  what  we  want  to  get.  How  are  we  going  to  get  it? 
I  don't  know.  I  have  not  solved  the  problem.  I  am  merely 
stating  it  to  you,  and  I  want  somebody  to  help  me  and  help 
the  rest  of  the  college  family  to  work  it  out. 

MR.  WEBSTER:  There  is  one  point  that  I  am  very  glad 
has  been  brought  out,  because  it  is  a  point  I  should  like  to 
make  myself.  It  is  this:  one  of  the  speakers  yesterday  said, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken  —  I  was  very  much  astonished  —  that 
it  turned  out  that  the  management  as  a  rule  has  under  Scien- 
tific Management  about  one  man  to  every  three  workmen, — 
am  I  right?  That  is  a  capital  thing  to  find  out,  and  when  you 
introduce  that  in  colleges  you  will  get  similar  results.  At 
present  we  have  one  man  handling  an  enormous  number  of 
men.  So  many  that  he  does  not  look  upon  them  as  men;  he 
looks  upon  them  as  people  who  trouble  him. 

Now,  gentlemen,  I  should  like  to  tell  you  one  thing  that  I 
know  something  about.  It  is  not  in  my  institution,  but  it 
is  in  Princeton.  Scientific  Management  has  been  applied 
at  Princeton.  If  there  are  any  Princeton  graduates  here  I 
apologize  for  what  I  am  going  to  say;  it  is  complimentary  to 
Princeton.  But  in  the  last  fifteen  years  Princeton  Univer- 
sity has  been  made  over.  It  has  been  made  into  a  place 
where  it  is  fashionable  to  study,  where  learning  has  become 
respectable.  It  was  recognized  by  Woodrow  Wilson  and 
other  people  in  authority  there  that  men  spent  their  time  on 
something  else.  Why  under  the  sun  it  is  not  recognized  by 
everybody  I  don't  see.  And  what  did  they  do?  They  hired 
a  lot  of  young  men  whom  they  called  preceptors,  paid  them 
good  salaries,  and  these  young  men  were  to  sit  by  these  stu- 
dents, three  or  four  at  a  time,  about  the  same  ratio  that  you 
gentlemen  of  Scientific  Management  have  discovered.  And 
the  same  effort  spent,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  various  ways 
will  produce  the  same  result.  Only  you  must  have  feeling, 
you  must  have  sympathy,  you  must  have  human  nature. 
These  addresses  have  interested  me  in  proportion  as  they 
have  brought  out  the  human  element. 

Now,  if  the  universities  in  this  country  cannot  so  lead 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  365 

public  opinion  as  to  see  that  everybody  who  comes  from  a 
university  shall  be  using  himself  at  the  very  best  efficiency 
there  is  in  him,  for  the  good  of  the  whole  people,  these 
universities  have  no  right  whatever  to  exist  or  to  spend  any 
money. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  We  have  about  half  an  hour.  We  have 
three  speakers  whom  I  should  like  to  hear  from,  and  I  am 
going  to  ask  them  to  confine  themselves  each  to  ten  minutes. 
I  am  sorry  to  do  it,  but  I  must.  Mr.  Hollis  Godfrey  will 
now  tell  us  something  about  the  use  of  a  planning  board.  I 
want  to  say  that,  if  I  am  right,  he  knew  absolutely  nothing 
about  molding  machines  six  months  ago.  I  do  not  believe 
he  had  ever  seen  one,  and  what  he  is  going  to  tell  us  today 
is  interesting  to  me  because  it  shows  how  a  man,  who  knew 
absolutely  nothing  about  the  business  into  which  he  went, 
was  able  to  control  some  of  the  details  which  we  have  come 
to  feel  can  be  mastered  by  a  man  only  after  he  has  been  on 
the  job  fifteen  or  twenty  years. 

MR.  GODFREY:  To  begin,  we  must  make  a  few  definitions. 
All  work  in  a  scientifically  managed  factory  is  handled  from 
the  central  Planning  Department.  The  instrument  by  which 
the  Planning  Department  or  "Planning  Room"  controls  the 
shop  is  the  "Planning  Board"  or  Bulletin  Board,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called.  The  man  who  controls  the  board  is  the 
Order-of-work  Clerk  who  is  sometimes  called  the  Bulletin 
Board  Clerk.  Briefly  speaking,  all  knowledge  of  the  progress 
of  the  work  in  the  factory  is  shown  on  this  planning  board 
and  all  movement  of  raw  and  finished  material  from  point  to 
point.  All  beginning  and  ending  of  operations  is  controlled 
by  the  movement  of  the  operation  orders  on  the  planning 
board.  One  may  almost  say  that  the  planning  board  is  a 
great  bulletin  board  made  up  of  group  after  group  of  small 
bulletin  boards,  each  of  which  small  boards  represents  a  single 
machine  or  work  place  and  each  of  which  small  boards  has 
three  sets  of  hooks,  one  over  the  other.  When  a  job  goes  into 
the  shop,  that  is,  when  the  drawings,  instruction  cards  etc.  are 
ready,  when  the  materials  are  all  found  to  be  on  hand  and 


366  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

everything  is  ready  to  actually  perform  the  work,  the  opera- 
tion order  which  concerns  a  given  operation  goes  on  to  hook 
No.  3,  "Jobs  ahead  in  shop/'  of  the  machine  on  which  that 
operation  is  to  be  done.  When  the  materials  have  been 
moved  to  the  machine,  the  operation  order  goes  to  hook 
No.  2,  "Jobs  ahead  at  machine."  When  the  job  actually 
gets  on  the  machine  the  order  is  moved  to  hook  No.  i, 
"Job  on  machine."  So  that  the  man  at  the  planning 
board  knows  at  any  time  where  a  given  job  is  by  the 
movement  of  the  operation  orders  on  those  three  hooks. 
That  is,  the  movement  of  all  things  in  the  shop  is  repre- 
sented by  the  movement  of  the  operation  orders  on  the 
planning  board. 

The  movement  of  the  operation  orders  at  the  shop  board, 
moreover,  controls  that  most  important  of  questions — "Which 
job  shall  we  do  first? "  —  for  it  is  the  order  or  sequence  in 
which  the  orders  are  placed  on  hook  No.  2  of  the  planning 
board  that  determines  the  order  or  sequence  of  the  jobs  that 
are  done  in  the  shop.  One  point  more  and  the  preliminary 
discussion  of  the  planning  board  will  be  done.  We  can  hardly 
pass  on  to  the  next  problem  without  a  word  concerning  the 
way  the  work  goes  from  the  board  inside  the  planning  room 
to  the  shop  outside.  When  the  order  goes  to  hook  No.  2, 
"Jobs  ahead  at  machine,"  a  duplicate  order  goes  out  into  the 
shop  on  to  a  corresponding  shop  board,  so  that  the  order  of 
work  for  the  machine,  as  we  call  it,  or  the  sequence  of  the 
jobs  to  be  done,  is  the  same  on  hook  No.  2  of  the  ma- 
chine bulletin  board  in  the  planning  room  as  it  is  on  the 
machine  bulletin  board  out  in  the  shop. 

There  are  a  whole  series  of  questions  which  we  can  answer 
immediately  by  means  of  this  planning  board,  besides  that 
important  question  "Which  job  shall  we  do  first?"  and  the 
subject  immediately  before  us  concerns  some  questions  which 
we  recently  formulated  at  the  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company. 
The  order-of-work  clerk  at  the  Tabor  is  an  able  man  with 
a  very  unusual  memory.  He  could  give  out  on  call  in  a  really 
amazing  fashion  all  sorts  of  necessary  shop  information,  but 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  367 

that  information  depended  on  the  memory  of  a  single  man. 
It  had  never  been  recorded  or  coordinated.  It  could  not 
readily  be  passed  on  to  another  man.  So  we  formulated  the 
following  questions  for  each  machine  in  order  to  record  and 
coordinate  that  necessary  shop  knowledge  which  the  order- 
of-work  clerk  possessed.  The  first  of  these  questions  is: 
"If  a  machine  breaks  down  what  other  machine  can  do  the 
work?"  (a  question  which  comes  without  any  warning  in  any 
plant).  Second,  "If  a  man  is  out  what  other  man  can  do 
the  job?"  Third,  "What  is  the  cost  of  any  operation  on 
any  machine  for  any  hour,  or  what  is  the  total  cost  of  all 
operations  going  on  on  all  machines  in  any  hour?"  To 
answer  these  questions  we  collected  and  coordinated  all  the 
material  we  could  get  and  finally  constructed  a  planning  board 
chart,  a  copy  of  a  small  portion  of  which  is  shown  here. 

PLANNING  BOARD  CHART 


Machine 

No. 

Shop 
Board 

3             4           S 

•  MAN    BTTNNINI 

Name         No.      Wage 

6 

3  ' 

Capacity 

Machine 
Cost 

8 
Machine 
Man  from 

9 

Machine 
Work  can 

Grinders 

goto 

G.   17 

B 

—  3 

Smith 

26 

30 

S.  -D. 

II 

28 

S.L.  14 

G. 

26 

G.   26 

A 

-4 

Church 

3i 

25 

G.i7- 

G.  12 

22 

S.D.  14 

G. 

17 

Lathes 

L.   14 

C 

—  3 

Manning 

47 

28 

G.  17 

26 

X 

L. 

22 

L.    22 

C 

-6 

Hayes 

83 

34 

A.A.M. 

2Q 

X 

L. 

14 

In  column  No.  i  is  the  machine  number.  There  are  repre- 
sented here  two  grinders,  grinder  17  and  grinder  26,  and  two 
lathes,  lathe  14  and  lathe  22. 

There  are  nine  things  that  we  wanted  to  show  on  this  chart. 
There  is  the  machine  number  in  column  i,  and  the  shop  board 
on  which  operation  orders  for  that  machine  are  posted  in 
column  2.  There  is  also  the  "Man  Running,' '  his  name, 
number,  wage  and  capacity.  (Columns  3,  4,  5  and  6.) 
"  Capacity"  is  the  only  one  of  those  headings  that  needs  expla- 
nation. Take  G.  17,  for  example.  Smith's  capacity  means 
the  machines  that  he  can  run  besides  G.  17.  He  can  run 
not  only  G.  17  and  "S."  (which  means  that  he  can  run  any  of 
the  grinders)  but  also  "D.  n,"  which  means  that  he  can  run 


368  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

one  of  the  drills  —  drill  No.  n.  Next  comes  the  cost  num- 
ber column  which  means  the  average  cost  of  running  G.  17 
one  hour  in  the  preceding  year.  Next  is  the  column  showing 
the  machines  from  which  a  man  could  come  to  run  G.  17.  In 
the  last  column  are  entered  the  numbers  of  machines  which 
can  do  the  work  of  G.  17. 

To  get  these  data  we  had  to  go  around  and  find  out  all  the 
men  who  could  run  different  machines.  Suppose  G.  17  breaks 
down.  We  look  over  in  column  9  and  we  find  instantly  that 
the  work  can  be  transferred  to  G.  26,  and,  if  G.  26  is  free,  the 
work  is  transferred  immediately  to  that  machine.  If  Smith, 
who  is  regularly  on  G.  17,  does  not  come  in,  we  can  look  down 
the  planning  board  chart  and  determine  which  man  can  go 
on  G.  17.  We  know  from  the  "S."  that  any  one  who  can  run 
a  grinder  can  run  G.  17,  and  the  man  who  has  the  least  impor- 
tant work  can  be  swung  over  to  that;  or  we  can  take  the  man 
on  L.i4,  because  he  is  also  trained  to  run  G.  17.  We  have 
answered  two  of  our  questions.  We  have  answered  the 
question,  "What  machine  can  we  put  work  on  at  any 
moment?"  and  we  have  answered  the  question,  "What 
man  can  be  put  on  a  given  machine  in  case  the  regular 
man  is  out?" 

The  third  question,  the  question  of  cost  per  hour,  is  answered 
by  simply  adding  together  the  cost  of  running  the  machine 
and  the  cost  of  workman's  wages  (columns  5  and  7)  and  the 
sum  of  the  two  gives  the  cost  per  operation  hour. 

On  the  next  line  we  have:  "G.  26,"  shop  board  A  —  4; 
man  running,  Church,  No.  31,  wages  25  cents  per  hour; 
capacity,  "G.  17,  G.  12."  Suppose  we  consider  this  case 
for  a  moment:  Church  could  be  swung  to  G.  17  or  G.  12. 
He  cannot  run  the  other  grinders.  The  cost  number  of 
his  machine  is  22.  A  man  can  come  to  this  grinder  from 
one  of  the  same  grinders  or  from  D.  14,  while  the  work 
can  be  transferred  to  G.  17,  which  does  the  same  class  of 
work. 

Against  L.  14  we  have  an  "X,"  which  indicates  that  no  man 
excepting  the  L.  14  man  can  run  that  machine,  while  L.  22 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  369 

can  be  run  by  Hayes  only,  who  is  an  "A.A.M." —  an  all- 
around  man. 

If  any  plan  is  to  be  a  success  there  has  to  be  some  inspec- 
tion for  it.  So  we  worked  out  an  inspection  form  which  has 
in  the  first  column  the  machine  numbers,  G.  12,  G.  13,  G.  14, 
etc.,  and  then  has  in  the  following  columns  the  headings, 
"Hours,"  " Preparation/'  " Sequence"  and  "Remarks." 
PLANNING  BOARD  INSPECTION  FORM 

Number  Hours  Preparation  Sequence  Remarks 

G.  12 

G.  13 

G.  14 

G.  15 

G.  16 

G.  17 

"Hours"  means  that  on  the  planning  board  we  have  to 
see  that  there  is  ten  hours' work  planned  ahead  for  every 
workman.  "Preparation"  means  that  work  shall  have  been 
prepared  or  planned  for  ten  hours'  work  ahead.  If  the  jobs 
take  up  less  than  ten  hours,  we  make  preparation  for  three 
jobs  ahead.  Either  three  jobs,  or  ten  hours' work  ahead  is 
the  rule. 

The  third  column  is  "Sequence"  and  that  indicates  whether 
or  not  the  order  of  work  is  being  followed.  The  fourth  is 
for  "Remarks." 

Suppose  we  illustrate  an  inspection  by  the  aid  of  this  chart, 
and  suppose  we  say  that  the  order-of-work  clerk  is  inspecting 
the  planning  board  on  the  grinder  division.  First,  he 
looks  at  G.  12  and  sees  if  there  are  ten  hours  work  ahead  for 
the  workman.  Second,  we  have  a  red  tag  which  indicates 
how  much  preparation  is  out.  He  looks  at  the  position  of 
this  red  tag  to  see  if  the  tool  lists,  inspection  cards,  drawings, 
etc.  are  ready  for  the  workman  to  do  three  jobs  ahead;  that 
is,  to  see  if  he  has  all  the  tools  and  instructions  he  needs. 
Third,  he  looks  to  see  if  the  proper  order  of  work  is  being 
followed,  —  that  is,  if  the  sequence  is  being  followed,  if  the 
jobs  on  the  hooks  represent  the  way  in  which  the  workman 
is  to  do  his  work.  Fourth,  he  glances  to  see  if  there  is 


370  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

anything  beside  these  matters  which  is  out  of  the  way.  Now 
as  to  the  order-of-work  clerk's  action  on  the  basis  of  this 
inspection.  If  he  sees  in  G.  14  that  the  man  has  not  ten 
hours  work  ahead  he  simply  draws  a  line  opposite  G.  14. 
He  comes  to  G.  15  and  sees  that  preparation  is  only  made  for 
two  jobs  instead  of  three.  He  draws  a  line  there.  He  looks 
at  G.  1 6  and  sees  that  the  sequence  is  not  right;  he  had  a 
stock  order  ahead  of  a  shipping  order  on  those  books  and  he 
draws  a  line  there.  He  finds  that  the  time-study  man  has 
made  an  error  in  figuring  the  time-units  necessary  for  the  job 
on  G.  15,  and  he  enters  "T.S."  in  the  remarks  column.  By 
that  series  of  checks,  therefore,  all  the  order-of-work  clerk 
has  to  do  beyond  his  inspection  is  to  hand  the  inspection 
sheet  over  to  the  recording  clerk  and  the  other  clerks  responsi- 
ble and  say,  "Why  is  not  that  right?"  The  order-of-work 
clerk  should  use  such  an  inspection  on  himself  and  find  his 
own  errors  by  such  inspection. 

Such  a  scheme  as  this  one  illustrates  the  principle  laid 
down  by  Mr.  Taylor  of  collecting  the  knowledge  of  the  shop 
which  exists  only  in  men's  minds,  recording  it,  coordinat- 
ing it  and  putting  it  in  a  form  easily  available  for  use.  It 
has  already  shown  its  use  and  has  made  possible  a  notable 
increase  in  the  speed  and  accuracy  of  running  the  board. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  There  is  one  more  speaker.  I  do  not 
often  give  Mr.  Taylor  instructions,  but  last  night  I  told  him 
I  wanted  him  to  take  one  problem  out  of  his  experience  and 
tell  us  how  he  solved  it;  but  I  have  changed  my  mind  about 
it  now  and  I  am  going  to  ask  him  to  simply  close  this  confer- 
ence. I  am  sure  that  some  of  the  things  he  has  heard  and 
seen  have  made  an  impression  on  him,  and  I  should  like  him 
to  use  his  time  as  he  sees  fit.  Mr.  Taylor. 

MR.  TAYLOR:  The  first  piece  of  time-study  that  I  ever 
saw  was  made  by  a  professor  who  was  making  a  time-study 
of  the  students  under  him.  Any  of  you  may  have  had  the 
good  fortune  to  go  to  school  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy, 
and  many  of  you  who  have  not  had  that  good  fortune,  have 
heard  of  Professor  George  W.  Wentworth,  never  known  as 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  371 

Wentworth  at  Exeter,  but  known  as  "Old  Bull."  With  all 
of  us  at  Exeter  it  was  a  matter  of  very  great  surprise  that 
Bull  Wentworth  was  able  throughout  the  whole  year,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end,  in  whatever  branch  of  mathematics 
he  was  teaching,  to  assign  us  a  lesson  for  the  next  day  which 
would  always  take  us  just  so  long  to  get.  It  was  astonishing, 
perfectly  surprising.  He  became  known  as  the  most  severe 
master  at  Exeter;  he  drove  the  boys  harder  than  anybody 
else.  We  thought  that  by  some  intuition  he  found  out  the 
fellows  who  were  not  working.  It  would  sometimes  be  a 
stupid  boy  and  sometimes  it  would  be  the  brightest  boy  in 
the  class  who  was  not  working.  It  did  not  make  a  bit  of 
difference  to  "  Old  Bull "  who  it  was ;  it  did  not  matter  whether 
the  bright  boy  was  reciting  fairly  well  or  not.  That  was  not 
what  he  was  bothered  about.  He  found  out  somehow  or  other 
that  that  fellow  was  not  working  as  much  as  he  ought,  and 
he  expected  about  three  or  four  times  as  much  of  the  smart 
fellows  as  he  did  of  the  stupid  ones.  That  is  rather  unusual. 
The  moment  he  found  that  such  and  such  men  were  not 
working  he  made  a  list  of  them,  and  at  least  half  of  two  days 
out  of  every  week  at  the  recitation  was  given  to  roughing  those 
boys  in  the  presence  of  the  class.  He  would  call  them  up, 
stand  them  up  in  front  and  ask  them  all  kinds  of  questions 
in  his  tremendously  sarcastic  manner.  The  whole  class  was 
familiar  with  this  roughing  operation,  and  it  was  sport  for 
all  the  rest  of  us.  Whenever  "Old  Bull"  would  ask  a  fellow 
a  sarcastic  question,  the  whole  class  would  get  up  and  howl. 
The  fellow  would  answer  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  but  after 
three  or  four  days  of  this  he  would  get  sick  of  it  and  go  to 
work.  The  moment  he  went  to  work  "Old  Bull"  had  some 
way  of  finding  it  out,  and  he  would  stop  roughing  him  and 
take  another  man. 

I  don't  know  whether  Bull  applied  time-study  to  that,  but 
he  did  apply  time-study  to  another  thing.  It  was  a  long  time 
before  we  found  it  out.  He  had  a  watch  in  the  front  of  his 
desk  and  we  all  knew  that  the  watch  was  there,  but  we  could 
not  find  out  what  it  was  for.  After  a  while  we  found  out 


372  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

what  he  was  doing  with  it.  He  spent  at  least  half  of  one 
recitation  every  week  in  making  a  time-study  of  the  boys. 
We  did  not  know  what  it  was  for.  He  would  give  a  certain 
series  of  problems,  probably  selected  by  him  with  the  greatest 
care  as  test  problems,  and  he  insisted  that  on  those  days  as 
soon  as  a  boy  had  solved  a  problem  he  should  raise  his  hand 
instantly,  and  he  would  call  his  name.  That  made  quite  a 
little  emulation  among  the  boys;  all  of  them  wanted  to  be 
the  first  to  be  called.  And  they  could  not  fake  it.  Lots  of 
us  would  have  been  entirely  ready  to  fake  it  so  as  to  be  first 
to  be  called,  but  we  never  knew  when  "Old  Bull"  was  going 
to  ask  us  to  get  up  and  shout,  so  we  could  not  fake.  That 
kept  the  matter  straight.  Whenever  a  fellow  held  up  his 
hand  it  was  the  genuine  thing.  When  he  reached  the  middle 
of  the  class  this  calling  of  names  was  stopped,  and  he  would 
go  on  and  do  something  else,  start  another  problem. 

Now  what  was  happening  was  this:  "Bull"  was  getting  the 
ratio  of  his  own  mind  in  solving  each  of  these  problems  as  they 
came  along  to  the  mind  of  the  man  in  the  middle  of  the  class. 
He  was  making  a  time-study  on  mental  ability.  And  by  means 
of  that  knowledge  he  found  the  progress  which  his  class  was 
making,  and  month  by  month  the  men  grew  much  more  rapid 
and  more  efficient.  He  kept  up  a  continuous  knowledge  of 
the  ratio  of  his  mind  to  the  mind  of  the  rest  of  the  class,  and 
by  that  means  he  was  able,  in  assigning  a  task  for  the  next 
day,  to  give  exactly  the  right  amount  for  the  men  to  do.  He 
would  simply  make  a  time-study  for  himself  of  the  various 
problems  he  was  going  to  give  out  and  multiply  that  by  the 
ratio,  and  then  he  had  just  two  hours  or  two  hours  and  a 
half  of  work  that  he  made  us  do,  and  he  kept  the  average  of 
the  class  doing  that  right  straight  along.  That  is  the  first 
case  of  scientific  time-study  that  I  ever  saw  and  it  was 
mightily  effective. 

I  am  speaking  merely  from  analogy,  but  I  am  absolutely 
certain  that  there  are  thousands  of  similar  cases  in  which 
accurate  knowledge  ought  now  to  be  applied  to  academic 
work  in  place  of  some  one's  "think  so,"  some  one's  guess  about 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  373 

it,  some  one's  general  experience,  some  one's  rule-of- thumb. 
Most  of  your  college  work  is  now  run  by  rule-of-thumb  just 
as  the  workman's  is  run  by  rule-of-thumb.  That  is  the  point 
that  I  want  to  bring  out;  what  these  things  are  I  don't  know, 
no  one  knows,  but  that  they  exist  in  academic  work  just  as 
they  exist  in  all  the  rest  of  the  work  in  this  world,  I  am 
absolutely  certain. 

MR.  CARDULLO:  Just  one  question.  Can  you  run  it  in 
any  other  way  than  by  rule-of-thumb  when  you  have  a  ratio 
of  one  instructor  to  twenty  students? 

MR.  TAYLOR:  Well,  now,  "Old  Bull"  had  fifty  in  his  class 
and  he  was  doing  something  all  right.  In  many  cases  I  quite 
agree  with  you,  the  point  is  well  taken;  that  is,  that  the 
ratio  of  instructors  to  students  is  so  small  that  you  don't 
find  time  to  do  anything  but  the  rough  part  of  the  work.  I 
agree  entirely  that  you  will  have  to  have  more  men,  more 
time-study  men.  In  that  matter  you  are  entirely  right,  but 
something  can  be  done.  I  think  a  change  in  the  viewpoint 
is  something;  a  belief  in  the  possibilities  is  something. 

MR.  CARDULLO:  I  find  I  can  prepare  instruction  cards  but 
I  cannot  see  that  those  instructions  are  carried  out. 

MR.  TAYLOR:  That  is  right;   that  is  entirely  right.    YouX 
must  have  more  men  to  do  it.    That  is  entirely  true,  but  I 
think  the  more  men  will  be  forthcoming. 

There  ought  to  be  a  vast  amount  of  that  work  done,  and  in 
the  bulletin  Mr.  Cooke  wrote  that  is  just  what  he  tried  to 
point  out  to  you,  gentlemen. 

Now  I  want  to  say  another  word,  a  word  that  I  did  not 
have  an  opportunity  to  take  into  the  conference  on  academic 
efficiency,  and  something  which  I  am  quite  sure  that  you 
gentlemen  do  not  realize;  namely,  that  Mr.  Cooke  was  well 
qualified  to  speak  on  the  subject  on  which  he  did  speak. 
You  think  that  he  was  "butting  in"  on  academic  matters. 
Now  I  want  to  tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  Mr.  Cooke  was 
perhaps  as  well  qualified  as  any  man  in  this  country,  or  better 
qualified,  to  speak  on  the  subject,  to  write  on  the  subject 
that  he  wrote  upon.  He  was  qualified  from  experience,  — 


374  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

not  experience  in  that  direct  line,  but  experience  in  a  line 
which  is  so  analogous  that  there  is  comparatively  little  dif- 
ference. Mr.  Cooke  was  chosen  by  Dr.  Pritchett  of  the 
Carnegie  Foundation  as  the  man  to  investigate  academic 
efficiency  because  of  his  special  qualifications  to  do  it.  Mr. 
Cooke  was  the  man  who  was  chosen,  —  when  nineteen  out 
of  twenty  of  the  Council  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechani- 
cal Engineers  believed,  firmly  believed,  just  as  the  nineteen 
out  of  twenty  professors  in  the  average  university  firmly 
believe,  that  no  man  inside  or  outside  of  the  university  can 
do  very  much  towards  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the  man- 
agement of  that  university  —  Mr.  Cooke  was  chosen,  an  out- 
sider, a  junior  member  of  the  society,  not  being  at  all  familiar 
with  the  affairs  of  the  society  or  with  the  management  of 
the  society,  to  reorganize  the  management  of  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers.  For  a  year  and  a  half 
Mr.  Cooke  did  for  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engi- 
neers just  what  some  day  some  man  is  going  to  do  for  your 
universities,  and  the  sooner  the  better.  Mr.  Cooke  investi- 
gated every  activity  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  made  a  scientific  investigation  of  it;  and  by  that 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  himself  made  this  investigation,  but  in 
every  case  he  consulted  one  or  more  experts,  the  best  that 
could  be  had  in  the  country,  and  asked  their  advice  and  called 
them  in  in  consultation  as  to  every  trifling  element  affecting 
the  management  of  the  society.  Nothing  was  too  small, 
nothing  was  too  great  to  investigate.  Let  me  say  what  the 
principal  object  of  this  investigation  was,  and  I  think  it  will 
appeal  to  you  gentlemen.  It  ought  to  appeal  to  every 
professor  in  every  university.  The  principal  object  of  Mr. 
Cooke's  investigation  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  was  to  free  the  head  men  in  that  society,  the  men 
who  were  busy  men,  men  whom  you  may  call  relatively  to 
other  working  people,  the  high-priced  men,  from  all  routine 
work,  from  all  drudgery,  from  all  trivial  decisions;  so  as 
to  leave  them  absolutely  free  from  harassing  details,  so  as  to 
put  them  in  the  position  in  which  they  could  devote  their 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT  375 

energies  to  the  vital  interests  of  the  society.  That  was  the 
first  and  great  object  which  Mr.  Cooke  had  in  view.  So  he 
studied  the  activities  of  all  of  the  head  men  of  the  society 
and  found  out  that  a  large  part  of  their  time  was  taken  up 
in  doing  trivial  matters  that  a  cheaper  man  could  do.  He 
then  proceeded  to  eliminate  all  of  those  trivial  activities  from 
these  men  and  hand  them  over  to  cheaper  men.  In  order 
not  to  interfere  with  the  success  of  these  men,  it  became 
necessary  to  be  sure  that  these  cheaper  men  would  do  these 
various  trifling  things,  or  less  important  things,  if  you  choose 
to  call  them  so,  just  as  well  as  the  high-priced  man  had  done 
them  before.  Therefore,  every  one  of  these  activities  small 
and  large,  had  to  be  standardized,  had  to  be  studied  in  the 
most  minute  way;  the  best  thing  had  to  be  found  and  then 
a  standard  established  with  a  system  of  daily  and  weekly 
inspection  from  the  outside.  Some  man  comes  in  to  inspect 
this  clerk's  duties,  that  clerk's  duties,  so  that  the  standards 
that  have  been  set  up  for  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  are  never  allowed  to  fall  down.  Then  the  secretary 
and  the  auditors,  all  of  the  important  men  of  the  society,  are 
informed  by  summarized  reports  at  frequent  intervals  con- 
cerning the  way  in  which  all  of  these  details  are  being  carried 
out.  Those  are  the  checks,  so  that  the  affairs  of  the  society 
are  carried  out  far  better  than  they  ever  were  in  the  past; 
are  carried  out  by  cheaper  men;  and  the  final  result  is  that 
the  men  who  are  managing  the  society  are  at  least,  man  for 
man,  four  to  six  times  as  efficient  towards  making  progress 
as  they  ever  were  in  the  past.  Mr.  Cooke  had  the  help  of 
a  committee  who  were  very  much  in  earnest.  All  that  th£ 
committee  did  was  advisory  work.  No  committee  ought  to 
do  anything  but  advisory  work.  Executive  work  on  the 
part  of  a  committee  is  an  anachronism  and  ought  to  be 
stopped. ,  You  people  in  the  colleges  are  doing  much  of  it. 
Executive  work  should  be  done  not  by  a  committee  but  by 
a  man.  No  such  thing  in  the  world  now  as  executive  work 
in  a  well-regulated  institution  is  done  by  committees.  The 
committees  of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers, 


376  TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 

and  there  are  many  of  them,  are  run  now  on  exactly  that 
principle.  All  that  they  have  to  do  is  to  exercise  their 
judgment.  The  society  supplies,  —  not  always  cheaper  men, 
sometimes  very  high-priced  men  —  but  always  some  one  else, 
to  do  the  executive  work  of  a  committee. 


REGISTRATION    AT 
THE    CONFERENCE 


REGISTRATION 


Adams,  George  H. 
Adams,  Mark  I. 
Albree,  Edward  C. 

Ambrose,  A.  N. 
Andrews,  H.  F. 

Ayres,  Philip  W. 


Insurance  Commissioner 
Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Co. 
President,  Albree  Self-figuring 

System  Co. 
Ambrose  Bros. 
Cost  &  System  Manager, 

A.  J.  Bates  Co. 
Forester 


Plymouth,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 

Swampscott,  Mass. 
Norwood,  Mass. 

Webster,  Mass. 
Concord,  N.  H. 


Badger,  E.  B.,  2nd 

Baker,  John  W. 
Baldwin,  Harry  S 


Banning,  Kendall 

Barnes,  Joel  M. 
Barter,  A.  E. 
Barter,  Mrs.  A.  E. 
Barth,  Carl  G. 
Bass,  Hon.  Robert 
Baston,  Charles  B. 

Bateman,  G.  W. 
Battey,  Harry  F. 

Billard,  F.  H. 


Blake,  C.  A. 
Bloomfield,  M. 
Boardman,  H.  E. 
Bradley,  M.  C. 

Brennan,  Thomas 
Brigham,  L.  S. 


Superintendent,  E.  B.  Badger  & 

Sons  Co. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Co. 
Treasurer  and  General  Manager, 

Phoenix  Lunch  Co.  and  Dunlap- 

Baldwin  Co. 
Managing  Editor  of  System,  The 

System  Co. 

Treasurer,  Harpham  &  Barnes  Co. 
Superintendent,  The  Plimpton  Press 

Consulting  Engineer 
Governor  of  New  Hampshire 
Superintendent,  Chemical  Mills  of 

Burgess  Sulphite  Fiber  Co. 
Cost  Keeper,  Sullivan  Machinery  Co. 
Department  Manager, 

Isaac  Prouty  &  Co.,  Inc. 
Secretary-Treasurer  and  Forester, 

N.  H.  Timberland  Owners' 

Association 

Salesman,  Western  Electric  Co. 
Director,  Vocational  Bureau 
Manager  of  Sales,  Eastern  Talc  Co. 
Special  Agent, 

Boston  &  Maine  Railroad  Co. 
Hemenway,  Barnes  &  Farley 
Brigham  Sheet  Gelatine  Co. 
379 


Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 


Springfield,  Mass. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Norwood,  Mass. 
Norwood,  Mass. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 
Concord,  N.  H. 

Berlin,  N.  H. 
Claremont,  N.  H. 

Spencer,  Mass. 


Berlin,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Randolph,  Vt. 


TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


Brighty,  Ralph 
Brooks,  Arthur  W. 

Brooks,  Frank 
Broughton,  C.  F. 
Brown,  W.  R. 

Browne,  Edwin  S. 
Bryant,  R.  C. 
Bryant,  R.  E. 

Burt,  Clarence 
Butts,  Edward  P. 


Industrial  Engineer, 

Forbes  Lithograph  Co. 
Treasurer  and  Manager, 

Pratt  Shoe  Co. 

Executive,  E.  &.  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co. 
Supt.  of  Weaving,  Amoskeag  Mfg.  Co. 
Pres.,  N.  H.  Forestry  Commission, 

Director  of  Berlin  Mills  Co. 
Manager  Efficiency  Division, 

The  Curtis  Publishing  Co. 
Professor  of  Lumbering, 

Yale  University 
Chief  Draftsman, 

Jefferson  Union  Co. 
Wm.  H.  Dexter  Co. 
Chief  Engineer, 

American  Writing  Paper  Co. 


Revere,  Mass. 

Natick,  Mass. 
St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
Manchester,  N.  H. 

Berlin,  N.  H. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 
New  Haven,  Conn. 

Lexington,  Mass. 
Springfield,  Mass. 

Holyoke,  Mass. 


Camp,  Sewall  F. 

Campbell,  F.  P. 
Cardullo,  Forrest  E. 

Carter,  Winthrop  L. 


Caswell,  F.  M. 

Gate,  Eleazar 
Chamberlain,  E.  H. 
Chase,  C.  P. 

Chase,  John  C. 

Chedel,  George  A. 
Childs,  E.  G. 
Chipman,  Miner 
Churchill,  P.  W. 
Clark,  Dana 

Clark,  J.  C. 
Clark,  Robert  C. 

Clement,  C.  S. 
Cleveland,  Fred'k  A. 

Coe,  H.  L. 


Industrial  Engineer, 

The  Plimpton  Press 
International  Paper  Co. 
Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineering, 

New  Hampshire  College 
General  Manager, 

Nashua  Gummed  &  Coated 

Paper  Co. 
Comptroller  of  Accounts, 

Amoskeag  Mfg.  Co. 
President,  L.  E.  Knott  Apparatus  Co. 
Forbes  Lithograph  Co. 
President,  Springfield  Board  of  Trade, 

President,  C.  P.  Chase  &  Co. 
Treasurer  and  General  Manager, 

The  Benjamin  Chase  Co. 
Superintendent,  Champlain  Realty  Co. 
Bliss  Fabyan  &  Co. 
The  Emerson  Co. 
Accountant,  Berlin  Mills  Co. 
Foreman  Pattern  Shop, 

E.  &  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co. 
General  Manager, 

E.  &  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co. 
Manager  Valve  Department, 

E.  &  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co. 
C.  S.  Clement  &  Co. 
Chairman  of  the  President's  Commis- 
sion on  Economy  and  Efficiency 
Harpham  &  Barnes  Co. 


Norwood,  Mass. 
Wilder,  Vt. 

Durham,  N.  H. 


Nashua,  N.  H. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Chelsea,  Mass. 

Springfield,  Mass. 

Derry,  N.  H. 
White  River  June.,  Vt 
Boston,  Mass. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Berlin,  N.  H. 

St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 

St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
Nashua,  N.  H. 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Boston,  Mass. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 


381 


Cone,  Charles  M.          Treasurer,  Hartford  Woolen  Co. 
Cooke,  Morris  L.  Consulting  Engineer 

Cooke,  Mrs.  Morris  L. 


Corcoran,  C.  M. 
Cox,  H.  E. 

Crabtree,  H. 
Crane,  E.  H. 
Cranshaw,  Harold  B. 
Cross,  Howard  L. 
Crowley,  P.  F. 

Cunningham,  T.  E. 
Cushman,  Charles  L. 


Cost  Manager,  Manville  Co. 
Superintendent  Portville  Tannery, 

Northwestern  Leather  Co. 
Manager,  Adams  Paper  Co. 
Treasurer,  Vermont  Printing  Co. 

John  H.  Cross  Co. 
Office  Manager, 

Cass  &  Daley  Shoe  Co. 
Vice-President, 

F.  M.  Hoyt  Shoe  Co. 
President,  Cushman-Hollis  Co. 


Cushman,  Mrs.  Chas.  L. 


Hartford,  Vt. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 
Providence,  R.  I. 

Portville,  N.  Y. 
Wells  River,  Vt. 
Brattleboro,  Vt. 
Providence,  R.  I. 
Boston,  Mass. 

Salem,  Mass. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Auburn,  Maine 
Auburn,  Maine 


Daniell,  Edward 
Davie,  John  S.  B. 
Davis,  Harry  F. 
Demmick,  Ford  W. 
Dexter,  William  H. 
Diemer,  Hugo 

Dodge,  James  M. 
Dole,  Arthur  E. 
Donovan,  Alfred  W. 
Donovan,  F.  J. 
Dreier,  Thomas 
Duffy,  J.  E. 


Menominee  Light  &  Power  Co. 
Commissioner  of  Labor 
Superintendent,  Sulloway  Mills 
Northwestern  Leather  Co. 
President,  Wm.  H.  Dexter  Co. 
Professor  Industrial  Engineering, 

Penn.  State  College 
Chairman  of  Board,  Link-Belt  Co. 
Bank  Commissioner 
President,  E.  T.  Wright  &  Co.,  Inc. 
Accountant,  Windsor  Machine  Co. 
The  Thomas  Dreier  Service 
Treasurer,  Acme  Knitting 

Machine  &  Needle  Co. 


Menominee,  Mich. 
Concord,  N.  H. 
Franklin,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Springfield,  Mass. 

State  College,  Penn. 
Nicetown,  Penn. 
Concord,  N.  H. 
Rockland,  Mass. 
Windsor,  Vt. 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

Franklin,  N.  H. 


Eastman,  John  R. 
Eaton,  J.  Shirley 
Emerson,  Harrington 

Emerson,  Mrs.  H. 
Evarts,  Sherman 


Trustee  Dartmouth  College, 
Railroad  Statistician 
Consulting  Engineer,  President, 
The  Emerson  Co. 

Lawyer 


Andover,  N.  H. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Windsor,  Vt. 


Fairbanks,  Joseph  P.     Executive,  E.  &  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co. 


Farwell,  R.  E. 
Ferguson,  John  C. 

Fielder,  E.  W. 
Filene,  A.  Lincoln 

Flanders,  Ralph  E. 


Manager,  Ryegate  Paper  Co. 
General  Baking  Co.  (Ferguson 

Branch) 

Editor,  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
General  Manager, 

Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Co. 
Mechanical  Engineer, 

Fellows  Gear  Shaper  Co. 


St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
East  Ryegate,  Vt. 

Boston,  Mass. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Springfield,  Vt. 


382 


TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


Foord,  James  A. 


Foster,  Prof.  F.  J. 


Professor  of  Farm  Administration, 
Massachusetts  Agricultural  Col- 
lege 

Prof,  of  Forestry,  N.  H.  College 


Amherst,  Mass. 
Durham,  N.  H. 


Franklin,  Benjamin  A.  Vice-President,  Strathmore  Paper  Co.   Mittineague,  Mass. 
Fraser,  Bert  Purchasing  Agent,  F.  M.  Hoyt  Shoe  Co.  Manchester,  N.  H. 

Fry,  Thomas  W.  Works  Manager,  Sullivan 

Machinery  Co.  Claremont,  N.  H. 


Gale,  Charles  J. 
Gantt,  Henry  L. 
Gay,  Edwin  F. 

Gibbs,  R.  C. 
Gibson,  Geo.  S. 

Gilbreth,  Frank  B. 
Gilbreth,  Mrs.  F.  B. 
Gile,  E.  S. 
Gill,  Miss  Laura 

Godfrey,  Hollis 
Goodell,  R.  C. 
Green,  Arthur  B. 
Gregory,  H.  S. 

Gregory,  R.  H. 


Auditor,  Harvard  Dining  Halls 

Consulting  Engineer 

Dean,  Harvard  Graduate  School  of 

Business  Administration 
Atlantic  National  Bank 
Superintendent  of  Construction, 

American  Real  Estate  Co. 
President,  Frank  B.  Gilbreth,  Inc. 

Treasurer,  Weekly  Bulletin  Pub.  Co. 
President,  Association  of  Collegiate 

Alumnae 

With  Frederick  W.  Taylor 
Vice-President,  Goodell  Co. 
S.  D.  Warren  &  Co. 
Private  Secretary  to  W.  R.  Brown, 

Berlin  Mills  Co. 
Comptroller,  Western  Electric  Co. 


Cambridge,  Mass. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Cambridge,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Boston,  Mass. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
West  Medford,  Mass. 
Antrim,  N.  H. 
Cumberland  Mills,  Me. 

Berlin,  N.  H. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


Hall,  Edwin  M. 

Hall,  S.  Carter 
Hammond, 

Herbert  H. 
Harrington,  E.  M. 
Hartness,  James 

Hartpence,  Edgar  L. 

Haslet,  George  W. 
Hathaway,  H.  K. 
Hathaway,  Mrs.  H.  K 
Heald,  Edward  S. 

Hemphill,  Ashton  E. 
Hill,  H.  C. 

Hillman,  Frederick  J. 
Hinman,  John  H. 


Treasurer  and  General  Manager, 

Jefferson  Union  Co. 
International  Paper  Co. 
President,  The  Standard  Electric 

Time  Co. 

E.  I.  duPont  de  Nemours  Powder  Co. 
President,  Jones  &  Lamson 

Machine  Co. 
Vice-President  and  General  Manager, 

The  Acme  Wire  Co. 
Agent,  Hillsboro  Woolen  Mills  Co. 
Vice-President,  The  Tabor  Mfg.  Co. 

Genera   Manager 

French  &  Heald  Co. 
Storage  Warehouse  Owner 
State  Engineer 

President,  New  England  Audit  Co. 
Manager  and  Treasurer,  The 
Orange  Lumber  Co. 


Lexington,  Mass. 
Turners  Falls,  Mass. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Wilmington,  Del. 

Springfield,  Vt. 

New  Haven,  Conn. 
Hillsboro,  N.  H. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 

Milford,  N.  H. 
Holyoke,  Mass. 
Concord,  N.  H. 
Springfield,  Mass. 

Plainfield,  Vt. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 


383 


Hirst,  E.  C.  State  Forester  Concord,  N.  H. 

Holbrook,  H.  S.  General  Agent,  Conn.  Mutual  Life 

Ins.  Co.,  The  Quaker  Shoe  Co.  Manchester,  N.  H. 

Holmes,  L.  S.  Chief  Inspector,  Western  Electric  Co.  Chicago,  111. 

Hopkins,  E.  M.  Employment  Manager, 

Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Co.  Boston,  Mass. 
Hopkins,  L.  B.              Head  Shop  Clerk,  General  Electric 

Co.  (Pittsfield  Works)  Pittsfield,  Mass. 
Home,  Frank  W.          Cost  Department,  The  S.  H.  Howe 

Shoe  Co.  Marlboro,  Mass. 

Howe,  Willard  B.          Treasurer,  Free  Press  Association  Burlington,  Vt. 

Hull,  Morton  Secretary,  Holyoke  Board  of  Trade  Holyoke,  Mass. 

Hunter,  Louis  J.  Supervisor  of  Methods, 

New  England  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co.  Boston,  Mass. 

Hutchins,  H.  W.  Superintendent,  Derby  &  Ball  Bellows  Falls,  Vt. 


Jackson,  Head  of  Appointment  Bureau, 

Miss  Florence  Women's  Industrial  Union  Boston,  Mass. 

Johnson,  Harry  B.        Bond  Salesman,  Lee,  Higginson  &  Co.     Boston,  Mass. 
Jones,  Charles  H.          President,  The  Commonwealth  Shoe 

and  Leather  Co.  Boston,  Mass. 


Jonett,  Mark  R.,  Jr.     Factory  Manager,  Ginn  &  Co. 


Boston,  Mass. 


Keely,  R.  R. 
Keith,  Harold  C. 

Kelly,  John  W. 
Kendall,  Henry  P. 
Kenerson,  E.  W.  H. 
Kennedy,  Frank  A. 
Kent,  William 
Kimball,  Benjamin  A. 


King,  George  M. 
King,  S.  F. 

Kingsbury,  E.  H. 
Kittleson,  John 

Krippendorf,  Paul 


Consulting  Engineer,  Tabor  Mfg.  Co. 
Assistant  Treasurer, 

George  E.  Keith  Co. 
Attorney,  Boston  &  Maine  R.  R. 
Manager,  Plimpton  Press 
Salesman,  Ginn  &  Co. 
Director,  National  Biscuit  Co. 
Consulting  Engineer 
President,  The  Concord  and 

Montreal  R.  R.;  President, 

The  Mechanicks  National  Bank 
Textile 
Clerk  Freight  Claims, 

Boston  &  Albany  R.  R. 
Secretary,  L.  H.  Howe  Shoe  Co. 
Manager,  E.  &  T.  Fairbanks 

&  Co.,  Ltd. 
Sales  Manager,  Krippendorf 

Kalculator 


Philadelphia,  Penn. 

Campello,  Mass. 
Portsmouth,  N.  H. 
Norwood,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Windsor,  Vt. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 


Concord,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Marlborough,  Mass. 

Sherbrooke,  P.  Q.,  Can. 
Lynn,  Mass. 


Lamson,  John  W. 
Lane,  Henry 
Lawson,  John  W. 
Leeds,  Alfred 


J.  H.  Lamson  &  Sons 
Treasurer,  Monadnock  Shoe  Co. 
J.  H.  Lawson  &  Sons 
Assistant  General  Manager, 
American  Writing  Paper  Co. 


Randolph,  Vt. 
Keene,  N.  H. 
Randolph,  Vt. 

Holyoke,  Mass. 


TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


Libby,  H.  I. 
Lightbody,  James 

Lincoln,  Carl  E. 
Lincoln,  Jonathan  T. 

Luitwieler,  C.  S. 
Lunn,  R.  M. 
Lunn,  Mrs.  R.  M. 


Master  Mechanic,  Saco-Pettee  Co. 
Overseer  of  Weaving, 

Amoskeag  Mfg.  Co. 
S.  D.  Warren  &  Co. 
General  Manager,  Kilburn, 

Lincoln  &  Co. 

Treasurer,  American  Stay  Co. 
Treasurer,  Lunn  &  Sweet  Shoe  Co. 


Biddeford,  Maine 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Cumberland  Mills,  Me. 

Fall  River,  Mass. 
East  Boston,  Mass. 
Auburn,  Maine 
Auburn,  Maine 


Macomber,  R.  L. 
Marden,  R.  C. 

Martin,  Ernest  C. 
May,  J.  Walter 
McClure,  Alfred  J.,  Jr. 
McCoy,  H.  A. 

McMurray,  H.  G. 
McQuarrie,  James  L. 

Meach,  R.  M. 
Meach,  Mrs.  R.  M. 
Merrick,F.W. 

Miller,  Charles  S. 

Miller,  Ernest  P.,  Jr. 
Miller,  Mrs.  Lida 
Miller,  Robert  L. 

Milliken,  John  B. 
Mitchell,  E.  A. 
Mixter,  Charles  W. 

Moore,  Charles  E. 
Moore,  Hugh  Kalsee 
Morrill,  H.  W. 

Morrison,  C.  E. 
Morton,  H.  A. 
Mulliken,  Horace 
Muther,  L.  F. 


Talbot  Company 
District  Plant  Chief, 

New  England  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co. 
Superintendent,  Goodell  Co. 
May  Cutting-Room  Safeguard  Co. 
Bond  Salesman,  Bodell  &  Co. 
Division  Supt.  of  Plant, 

New  England  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co. 
H.  B.  Reed  &  Co. 
Assistant  Chief  Engineer, 

Western  Electric  Co. 
Manager,  Cross  Abbott  Co. 

President,  Union  Stitch  Lock  Co.; 

American  Stay  Co. 
Business  Economist, 

Miller,  Franklin  &  Stevenson 
Forbes  Litho.  Mfg.  Co. 

Business  Economist, 

Miller,  Franklin  &  Stevenson 
Treasurer,  Yale  &  Towne  Mfg.  Co. 
Superintendent,  Hartford  Woolen  Co. 
Professor  of  Political  Economy, 

University  of  Vermont 
General  Superintendent, 

G.  E.  Keith  Co. 
Chief  Chemist  and  Chemical  Eng'r, 

Burgess  Sulphite  Fiber  Co, 
Superintendent,  Ludlow  Mfg. 

Associates 

Salesman,  Grimth-Stillings  Press 
Superintendent,  Paris  Mfg.  Co. 
Mechanical  Engineer 
Treasurer,  Peerless  Machinery  Co. 


Boston,  Mass. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Antrim,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Concord,  N.  H. 

Lowell,  Mass. 
Manchester,  N.  H. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
White  River  June.,  Vt. 
White  River  June.,  Vt. 

Boston,  Mass. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
Fitchburg,  Mass. 
Chicago,  111. 

New  York,  N.  Y. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 
Hartford,  Vt. 

Burlington,  Vt. 
Brockton,  Mass. 
Berlin,  N.  H. 

Ludlow,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
South  Paris,  Me. 
Rye,  N.  Y. 
Boston,  Mass. 


Naylor,  Emmett  Secretary,  Board  of  Trade  Springfield,  Mass. 

Nichols,  C.  H.  President,  Small  Nichols  &  Co.,  Inc.      Boston,  Mass. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 


385 


Nolan,  Thomas  F.         Cost  Clerk,  F.  M.  Hoyt  Shoe  Co. 
Northrup,  William  B.  Engineer  of  Methods, 

New  England  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co. 
Nutter,  Oscar  E.  Assistant  Superintendent, 

Saco-Pettee  Co. 


Manchester,  N.  H. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Newton  Upper  Falls, 

Mass. 


Officer,  Thomas 


Superintendent,  Sullivan 
Machinery  Co. 


Claremont,  N.  H. 


Paige,  J.  B. 

Paige,  Mrs.  J.  B. 
Parker,  Fred  F. 
Parks,  R.  S. 
Patterson,  F.  G. 
Pearson,  Charles  L. 

Pearson,  Edward  N. 
Pearson,  J.  A. 

Pecker,  Charles  H. 
Porter,  B.  W. 
Porter,  Mrs.  B.  W. 
Powers,  Charles  T. 
Prescott,  Edward  L. 
Prouty,  C.  N.,  Jr. 


Assistant  Superintendent, 
E.  &  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co.,  Ltd. 

Parker  &  Young  Co. 
Treasurer,  The  G.  M.  Parks  Co. 
Auditor,  Pacific  &  Atlantic  Mills 
Office  Manager,  German-American 

Button  Co. 
Secretary  of  State 
Factory  Manager,  Vermont  Farm 

Machine  Co. 
John  H.  Cross  Co. 
President,  New  England  Box  Co. 


Treasurer,  W.  H.  McElwain  Co. 
Director,  Isaac  Prouty  &  Co.,  Inc. 


St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
Lisbon,  N.  H. 
Fitchburg,  Mass.  • 
Boston,  Mass. 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Concord,  N.  H. 

Bellows  Falls,  Vt. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Greenfield,  Mass. 
Greenfield,  Mass. 
Northampton,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Spencer,  Mass. 


Quinby,  Hon.  H.  B.      Ex-Governor  of  New  Hampshire 


Laconia,  N.  H. 


Rahmanop,  Ford  W. 

Ramaked,  George  W. 
Rankeillor,  Alexander 
Rankin,  Walter  P. 
Redfield,  William  C. 


Redfield,  Mrs.  Wm.  C. 
Reed,  Ralph  D. 
Regan,  Joseph  C. 

Requa,  Arthur  F. 
Rice,  C.  M. 

Robbie,  Kenneth 
Robinson,  Edward 


Assistant  Superintendent, 

Burgess  Sulphite  Fiber  Co. 
German-American  Button  Co. 
Superintendent,  Saco  &  Pettee  Co. 

Member  U.  S.  House  of  Representa- 
tives, sth  N.  Y.  District:  Vice- 
President,  American  Blower  Co. 

General  Manager,  H.  B.  Reed  &  Co. 
Assistant  to  General  Manager, 

Yale  &  Towne  Mfg.  Co. 
N.  Y.  Evening  Post  Co. 
Secretary,  Marshall  Wells 

Hardware  Co. 

General  Secretary,  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineering, 

University  of  Vermont 


Berlin,  N.  H. 
Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Biddeford,  Me. 
Boston,  Mass. 


Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Manchester,  N.  H. 

Stamford,  Conn. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Duluth,  Minn. 
Springfield,  Mass. 

Burlington,  Vt. 


TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


Roper,  Charles  H. 

Rowe,  B.  A. 
Russell,  Howard  I. 

Russell,  Lewis  H. 
Russell,  W.  F. 

Russell,  W.  W. 
Rutzell,  F.  A. 

Ryan,  M.  H. 
Ryder,  H.  D. 


Superintendent  Construction  Dept., 

Hood  Rubber  Co. 
Plimpton  Press 
Superintendent  of  Carding, 

Amoskeag  Mfg.  Co. 
German-American  Button  Co. 
Treasurer,  Harrisburg  Foundry  & 

Mch.  Works 

Cashier,  First  Nat'l  Bank 
Superintendent  of  Operations, 

New  England  Box  Co. 
W.  M.  McElwain  Co. 
Manager,  Derby  &  Ball 


Boston,  Mass. 
Norwood,  Mass. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Harrisburg,  Penn. 
White  River  June.,  Vt. 

Greenfield,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Bellows  Falls,  Vt. 


Scammon,  Richard 
Schumaker,  John  S. 
Shelton,  H.  W. 
Sibley,  A.  C. 

Silsby,  E.  S. 
Simpson,  J.  R. 
Slayton,  H.  E. 
Sleeper,  Dwight  W. 

Small,  F.  L. 
Smith,  E.  C. 
Smith,  Frederick  B. 
Smith,  George  H. 
Smith,  James  T. 
Smith,  Robert  E. 
Smith,  Stanton  E. 
Smith,  Walter  C. 

Sprague,  H.  W. 
Stevens,  Albert  E. 

Stevens,  Roland  E. 


Stillman,  A.  R. 

Sullivan,  J.  M. 
Sweet,  Homer  W. 

Szepesi,  Eugene 


Bank  Commissioner 

Chief  Engineer,  S.  D.  Warren  &  Co. 

Forbes  Litho.  Mfg.  Co. 

Treas.  and  Superintendent, 

The  Quaker  Shoe  Co. 
General  Shipping  Clerk, 

E.  &  T.  Fairbanks  &  Co. 
Merchandise  Manager, 

Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Co. 
President  and  Treasurer, 

F.  M.  Hoyt  Shoe  Co. 
Fire  Protection  Engineer, 

Underwriters'  Bureau  of  N.  E. 
Treasurer,  Small  Nichols  &  Co.,  Inc. 
Nashua  Gummed  &  Coated  Pa.  Co. 
W.  H.  McElwain  Co. 
Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Lowell  Textile  School 
Smith  &  Son 

General  Manager,  Tilton  Optical  Co. 
Sec'y  and  Ass't  Treasurer,  Vermont 

Farm  Machine  Co. 
Nesmith  Shoe  Co. 
Supervisor  of  Expenses, 

Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Co. 
Vice-President,  L.  E.  Knott 

Apparatus  Co.; 

Attorney  at  Law  at  White  River 

Junction,  Vt. 
Office  Manager, 

C.  B.  Cottrell  &  Sons  Co. 
Weekly  Bulletin  Publishing  Co. 
Public  Accountant, 

Harvey  S.  Chase  &  Co. 
Textile  Engineer,  Szepesi  &  Farr 


Stratham,  N.  H. 
Cumberland  Mills,  Me. 
Boston,  Mass. 

North  Weare,  N.  H. 
St.  Johnsbury,  Vt. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Manchester,  N.  H. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Nashua,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Norwood,  Mass. 
Lowell,  Mass. 
White  River  June.,  Vt. 
Tilton,  N.  H. 

Bellows  Falls,  Vt. 
Brockton,  Mass. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 


Westerly,  R.  I. 
Boston,  Mass. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Boston  Mass. 


ON  SCIENTIFIC  MANAGEMENT 


387 


Taber,  C.  H. 
Talcott,  George  S. 

Tarbell,  John  A. 
Tarr,  Forrest  E. 

Taylor,  Frederick  W. 
Temple,  Edw.  H.,  Jr. 

Thompson,  F.  W. 
Thompson,  Sanford  E. 

Thompson,  Mrs.  S.  E. 
Tobin,  John  F. 

Torrey,  Harry  K. 
Tuttle,  M.  C. 
Tuxbury,  Charles 
Tyler,  Victor 


President,  American  Pad  and 

Paper  Co. 
Secretary  and  Treasurer, 

American  Hosiery  Co. 
D.  Whiting  &  Sons 
Div.  Const.  Engineer, 

New  England  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co. 
Consulting  Engineer 
Superintendent,  Aberthaw 

Construction  Co. 
Accountant,  Berlin  Mills  Co. 
Consulting  Engineer 


General  President,  Boot  &  Shoe 

Workers'  Union 
Secretary  to  Gov.  Bass 
Secretary,  Aberthaw  Construction  Co. 
Dwight  Tuxbury  &  Sons 
President  and  Treasurer, 

The  Acme  Wire  Co. 


Holyoke,  Mass. 

New  Britain,  Conn. 
Charles  town,  Mass. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 

Boston,  Mass. 
Berlin,  N.  H. 
Newton  Highlands, 

Mass. 
Newton  Highlands 

Boston,  Mass. 
Concord,  N.  H. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Windsor,  Vt. 

New  Haven,  Conn. 


Upham,  J.  Duncan       Treasurer,  Sullivan  Machinery  Co.         Claremont,  N.  H. 


Vaitses,  Paul  S. 
Vaitses,  Mrs.  P.  S. 
Varney,  Manley  H. 

Vawter,  ¥.  M. 


Factory  Accountant,  Regal  Shoe  Co. 

Overseer  Finishing  Department, 

Amoskeag  Mfg.  Co. 
Vice-Pres.,  Baker- Vawter  Co. 


Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Holyoke,  Mass. 


Waite,  C.  H. 
Wakeman,  Samuel  W. 
Walker,  George 
Warren,  Edmund  L. 
Warts,  Sherman 
Webb,  B.  S. 

Webner,  Frank  E. 

Webster,  Arthur  J. 
Webster,  Fred 

Webster,  Leon 
Wellman,  Harry  R. 


Treasurer,  Taylor-Burt  Co.  Holyoke,  Mass. 

New  York  Shipbuilding  Co.  Camden,  N.  J. 

Superintendent,  The  Taylor-Burt  Co.  Holyoke,  Mass. 

W.  H.  McElwain  Co.  Boston,  Mass. 

Windsor,  Vt. 
President,  New  England  Electric 

Works  Lisbon,  N.  H. 
Vice-President,  American  Cost 

Accounting  Co.  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Professor  of  Physics,  Clark  University  Worcester,  Mass. 
Advertising  Manager,  American 

Writing  Paper  Co.  Holyoke,  Mass. 
Assistant  Superintendent, 

Royal  Worcester  Corset  Co.  Worcester,  Mass. 
Asst.  Sec'y,  Boston  Chamber  of 

Commerce  Boston,  Mass. 


388 


TUCK  SCHOOL  CONFERENCE 


Wells,  A.  E. 

Welton,  Benjamin  F. 
Wheeler,  H.  G. 

Wheeler,  Leonard  D. 
White,  L.  C.,  Jr. 
Whitney,  W.  A. 
Willers,  Diedrick  K. 
Winestock,  O.  I. 
Witherell,  F.  W. 
Wolf,  Robert  B. 

Worthen,  H.  W. 

Worthen,  James  C. 
Worthen, 
Thomas  W.  D. 


Superintendent  of  Shops, 

Sibley  College,  Cornell  Univ. 
Sec'y,  Budget  Exhibit  Com.,  N.  Y.  City 
Traffic  Chief,  New  England 

Tel.  &  Tel.  Co. 

Treasurer,  Ottaquechee  Woolen  Co. 
Treasurer,  Amsden  Lime  Co. 
President,  Emerson  Paper  Co. 
German-American  Button  Co. 
President,  Winestock  Mfg.  Co. 
Efficiency  Engineer,  Suffren  &  Son 
Superintendent,  Burgess  Sulphite 

Fiber  Co. 
District  Commercial  Manager, 

New  England  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co. 
American  Glue  Co. 


Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
White  River  June.,  Vt. 
Amsden,  Vt. 
Wendell,  N.  H. 
Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Perkinsville,  Vt. 
New  York,  N.  Y. 

Berlin,  N.  H. 

Manchester,  N.  H. 
Gloucester,  Mass. 


Member  Public  Service  Commission      Concord,  N.  H. 


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